This director loves making friends.

Xu Jinglei returned to her room with a blank expression, but she ultimately did not knock on Qin Keqing's door.

It's not that I don't want to knock, nor that I've changed my mind.

Instead, just as she was about to knock on the door, she saw her homeroom teacher also knocking...

Fortunately, she reacted quickly, turning her foot and slipping to the corner of the corridor, her heart pounding wildly.

Xu Jinglei's first thought was, "Would Teacher Yu come to arrest me?"

Yeah, it's because I feel guilty. After all, I'm still a freshman who just started college, and I naturally have a sense of awe towards my class teacher.

As soon as Yu Feihong entered Qin Keqing's room, Xu Jinglei was about to rush back to her own room when she suddenly realized something after taking only one step.

wrong!

Didn't Teacher Yu say she was going back to school? What's she doing here?

Is it...

Upon having that thought, Xu Jinglei quickly shook her head, unwilling to believe it.

But this thought just wouldn't go away.

So she decided to secretly observe for a while—mainly because she was worried about her teacher. In case, just in case, Director Qin made a move on her teacher, and her teacher asked for help, she could be there to save her immediately…

Xu Jinglei was making up a jumbled mess of reasons in her mind.

Half an hour has passed.

An hour has passed.

Teacher Yu didn't come out!

Xu Jinglei returned to her room with a blank expression, and couldn't help but recall Wu Guihua's meaningful smile when she mentioned the Beijing Film Academy.

"So the Beijing Film Academy is the same..."

"Is that how the film and television industry is generally?"

"So, given that even Teacher Yu is so devoted to a talented and beautiful director like Qin Keqing, what reason do I have not to seize this opportunity? I'm no less capable than Teacher Yu!"

Many people suffered from insomnia that night.

When Qin Keqing woke up, there was no one in bed; Yu Feihong had already left.

"Women really do recover faster than men."

He was quite tired last night too.

The other party seemed particularly keen on the so-called "revenge," doing it again and again until he was exhausted and lay there at his mercy, finally seemingly without the strength to move an inch.

To put it most aptly, he's both bad at the game and loves to play.

However, it does seem to recover health very quickly.

Qin Keqing had no idea when the other person left.

Actually, Xu Jinglei was wrong. She thought that Qin Keqing would return to Hong Kong to do post-production after finishing filming, but the post-production of "Old Boys" would not be done in Hong Kong, but at the Qingying Film Studio.

This film also adopted the traditional method of Hong Kong films at that time: shooting and editing simultaneously.

Hong Kong editors are much better than mainland editors in this respect, at least for directors who know what they want.

They're paid to do things; they'll cut however we tell them to, and they're very obedient.

At that time, many editors in mainland China had their own opinions on the film and might argue with the director for a long time over some shots.

As for which is better, we cannot draw a conclusion arbitrarily; we must consider them relatively.

On the eighth day that Qin Keqing was working on the post-production of the film, Xie Fei returned from Berlin and called Qin Keqing, asking her to go to the Beijing Film Academy.

"Teacher, you're back?"

Qin Keqing met Xie Fei in the office, and Xie Fei seemed to be in a fairly good mood.

He gestured for Qin Keqing to sit down and asked with a smile, "How's the movie going? Is it almost finished? Berlin is about to announce the main competition lineup and they're eager to see the finished film."

"It will probably take another ten days or so."

秦柯青算了一下，第44届柏林国际电影节2月10日开幕，他们公布入选主竞赛单元的名单大概在1月10日左右。

If Berlin insists on seeing the finished film of "Oldboy" before announcing the main competition lineup, it will probably be too late.

"Teacher, I'm worried that by the time 'Oldboys' is finished, it might be too late for Berlin to announce the main competition lineup. Will they announce it all at once or in batches? If it's all at once, do we have to see the finished film before the announcement?"

"Ha ha……"

Xie Fei laughed.

"Don't rush. The Berlin side is urging us to see the finished film, but it's not about the main competition. The main competition is a minor matter, not as important as you think."

Yes, you know that Yi Mou's directorial debut was "Red Sorghum," right? And it unexpectedly won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

His film's inclusion in the Berlin Film Festival was purely accidental; it wasn't even a prepared entry for the main competition.

Originally, the film was supposed to be "King of the Children" directed by Kai Ge, but for some reason, "King of the Children" was temporarily withdrawn and instead went to Cannes. "Red Sorghum" was thus forced into the role.

At the time, the film wasn't even finished in post-production; the sound and picture weren't yet integrated, and there wasn't even a complete copy. It wasn't until just before the Berlin Film Festival was about to open that it was barely completed.

Qin Keqing nodded. He already knew that although the three major European competitions all had certain bottom lines, these bottom lines were sometimes quite flexible, such as in the selection of participants for the main competition.

Like the Berlin Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival usually announces the first batch of films selected for the main competition in January each year, with a window of 1 to 4 weeks before the official opening in February.

During this window period, the main competition lineup is often supplemented on short notice. This is a common and flexible adjustment practice for film festivals after the film list is announced and before the opening ceremony.

The Berlin Film Festival has responded directly to this by stating that some major films whose post-production is delayed will be invited by the organizing committee to temporarily join the main competition as "special entries" after the final completion.

However, the addition process is basically completed before the official opening of the film festival, and no new films will be added to the main competition section after the opening.

This is different from the Venice Film Festival.

Since 2004, the Venice Film Festival has had a "surprise film" section, which involves adding films to the main competition section after the festival has started. The official explanation is that this is to give the audience a "surprise".

Yes, those who know, know.

"Teacher, how was your trip to Berlin?"

Qin Keqing looked at Xie Fei and asked with great anticipation.

Please remember the only URL of this novel: ".". The website owner has only this one website, and other websites may be discontinued at any time.

When this was mentioned, Xie Fei was both happy and worried, and he sighed with some emotion.

"Ke Qing, you are still young, and you will have many more opportunities in the future."

Before Qin Keqing could say anything, Xie Fei continued, "This time, 'Old Boys' was originally very promising. Chairman Moritz was very interested in the film, and after watching the clips I brought, he told me that if nothing unexpected happened, it had a great chance."

"And then an unexpected event occurred?"

I guess so.

Xie Fei sighed again, saying with some regret, "A movie called 'In the Name of the Father' was released in Hollywood on December 12th. This movie was not originally planned to come to Berlin, but because of poor box office performance, the producers changed their strategy and prepared to compete for awards."

You should know that the Berlin Film Festival has always valued films that critique social realities and dare to confront sensitive political and social issues. Works that focus on systemic injustice and individual struggles have always been its core preference for awards.

"In the Name of the Father" is a film that uses the father-son relationship as its core narrative, but also contains the heavy theme of political persecution.

Most importantly, this film is based on a true story, and this kind of political persecution and judicial injustice occurred in Britain…

Qin Keqing understood instantly.

Based on true events, a critique of social realities, political persecution, judicial injustice, individual resistance, and it all takes place in Great Britain, a country Germans "love" the most...

This "buff" is so high it's overflowing.

At the Berlin Film Festival, anyone who encounters a film like this can only consider themselves unlucky.

"But don't be discouraged."

Xie Fei quickly comforted Qin Keqing, whispering, "President Moritz once vaguely mentioned that you're a good director. You know what I mean, right?"

Qin Keqing probably understood.

Is he trying to win the Best Director award for himself?

But my purpose in making "Old Boys" was not to win the Best Director award!

Qin Keqing decided to go to Berlin early once the film's post-production was finished to see if there was still a chance. If not, he could follow the example of Kai's "King of the Children" and wait three more months to go directly to Cannes.

He's not like Chen Kaige.

Chen Kaige "joined forces" in Cannes, having set up Berlin beforehand. "King of the Children" served as a pledge of loyalty and also laid enough groundwork for his "Farewell My Concubine" to win the Palme d'Or.

Qin Keqing was even confident that if he followed the same approach as Kai Ge in Berlin, he would have at least an 80% chance of winning the Palme d'Or for this film, "Old Boys," without even having to wait for the next movie.

Of course, the consequences will be the same as for Kai.

This marks the end of my time in Berlin. No matter how well I make my films or how much they appeal to Berlin, it will be difficult to win any awards there.

Yes, Zhang Yimou has done something similar.

His film "Not One Less" was originally scheduled to be shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but it was temporarily withdrawn for some reason and moved to Venice a few months later.

This can be considered a setup against Cannes.

Although "Not One Less" earned Zhang Yimou another Venice Golden Lion, his path to winning awards at Cannes has been cut off ever since.

Later, he developed a strong fascination with Cannes because he was just one Palme d'Or away from completing the three major European Grand Slams.

Unfortunately, no matter what film he brought to Cannes, it couldn't even be selected for the main competition.

In this respect, Berlin did a more respectable job than Cannes on the surface; at least they allowed Chen Kaige to enter the main competition, though of course, he could forget about winning any awards.

"Teacher, hasn't Berlin ever considered giving out two pairs again?"

Qin Keqing felt that as long as there was hope, it was best not to offend Berlin.

Xie Fei glared at Qin Keqing with some displeasure. His film "Woman of Fragrant Souls" won the Berlin Golden Bear Award last year, along with Li An's "The Wedding Banquet".

What is a double-yolk egg?

That sounds awful.

That's called the highest award being given to two films at the same time; it's a double award, not a tie!

"Chairman Moritz said double prizes... Pshaw, double prizes have a negative impact; we can't give out double prizes every year."

Isn't that a bad influence?

Haha, when has the Berlin Film Festival ever worried about having a bad influence?

With the pride of being one of Europe's three largest economies, would they really care about this?