This director loves making friends.

In terms of rules, every award in the main competition section of the three major European film festivals is selected by the jury, including the top prize.

The jury members are all temporary, and the members change every year. The jury chair is also a "temporary worker".

Typically, authoritative figures from the film and literary circles are invited to discuss and deliberate on the award recipients. The jury then disbands after the film festival concludes that year.

Furthermore, the three major European film festivals have clearly defined written rules governing the power of their juries.

First, regarding constraints, film festivals such as Cannes and Berlin have established formal rules that prohibit jury members from having their own films shortlisted for the main competition, and also prohibit jury members from having any direct interest in the distribution of the films in competition, in order to avoid bias in the judging process.

The jury has no authority to change the officially predetermined list of shortlisted films; it can only complete the award selection process within the scope of the shortlisted works.

These constraints seem normal.

The judging panel also wields considerable power.

The official core awards in the main competition, such as the Palme d'Or, the Golden Bear, and the Golden Lion, are all selected by the jury through independent voting.

Taking the Cannes Film Festival as an example, the first two rounds of voting adopt the principle of absolute majority, while the subsequent rounds adopt the principle of relative majority, and the final winners are determined by secret ballot throughout the process.

The chairperson of the judging panel can guide the direction of the discussion, but does not have the final decision-making power. All results must be approved by a vote of all judges.

Most importantly, under normal circumstances, film festival officials cannot interfere with the award distribution for any reason.

By imposing constraints and granting them power, the judging panel seems to be able to decide all the awards. There are also frequent rumors that the judging panel is arguing fiercely over the ownership of a particular award.

fair enough.

At least that's how it appears on the surface.

But do you really think that film festival officials can't control who gets the awards? If you think that, you're being incredibly naive.

Pierre-Lissent had told Qin Keqing that the jury usually consisted of 9 or 11 people, and sometimes 7. Of these jury members, at least one-third were always "obeying" the official orders.

Don't think that only one-third of the judges "follow orders" is too few.

Anyone who has been a judge knows that when one-third of the judges agree, some of the remaining judges will inevitably follow suit. Add to that the judges who genuinely support the films that these judges "support," and most of the time, it's easy to achieve more than half the votes.

Especially when there are only 7 judges, then without a doubt, this year's competition will be the most standard "score control".

The 44th Berlin International Film Festival has nine jury members, and Qin Keqing believes that at least three of them are "plants." As for which three, it's not something the average person would know.

Sometimes these "plants" don't necessarily have a good relationship with Berlin or be part of Berlin's inner circle. Instead, Berlin officials will communicate in advance and negotiate the terms, and that's how a "plant" is created.

If Qin Keqing wants to win the Golden Bear Award, the simplest way is not to become "friends" with all nine judges. Ordinary "friends," such as casual acquaintances or drinking buddies, may not necessarily get them to compromise.

The simplest way is to use points to "bombard" Berlin Film Festival Chairman Moritz.

Qin Keqing's "friends" are ranked from lowest to highest as follows: "casual acquaintances", "fair-weather friends", "sworn brothers", "friends based on mutual benefit", "friends of the soul", and "friends who would die for each other".

He believes that "Oldboy" is a film that can meet the Golden Bear standard, and it doesn't need "spiritual friendship" or "life-and-death friendship". It only needs to reach the level of "friendship for mutual benefit" with Moritz, and it will be basically guaranteed.

Unfortunately, "friendship based on mutual benefit" requires 100 points.

Before Qin Keqing came to Berlin, although he had been "crazy" for a week, he only managed to get 24 points. Adding the 45 points he had before, he only had 69 points in total, which was still far from 100 points.

With 24 points a week, that's roughly equivalent to making cameo appearances in three and a half movies a day. Only Hong Kong cinema at that time could be this crazy.

Although the number of films produced in mainland China each year far exceeded that of Hong Kong during this period, that was within the national scope. Even if you were to stay at a film and television base, you might not be able to get a cameo role in three and a half movies every day.

It's not that this film and television base doesn't have that many movies filming every day; it's that they have schedules and plans for filming. It's impossible for them to rush you to film your cameo scene as soon as you arrive and then make you rush to the next location.

Only Hong Kong films from this period, with their extremely short shooting schedules, coupled with Hong Kong's relatively small size, making it possible to travel between locations by car, could achieve this.

Even if Qin Keqing "sprinkled" 50 points on Moritz, making him a "sworn brother," he still wasn't confident that Moritz would win the Golden Bear for "Old Boys."

After all, the film "In the Name of the Father" had too many advantages, and Xu Feng was an "enemy" on the jury. In addition, Berlin had just had a Golden Bear "double yolk" last year, so they were unlikely to want to have a "double yolk" for the top prize this year.

Qin Keqing estimates that if Moritz were to become his "sworn brother," he would most likely give him the Jury Prize or Best Director, and perhaps another award, and then promise to make him win the Golden Bear within the next few years.

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Given their close friendship, Moritz is highly unlikely to go back on his word and will definitely award the Golden Bear in the next few years.

But fame should be achieved early, and Qin Keqing didn't want to wait any longer.

Therefore, Pierre Lissent's cooperation is needed.

Qin Keqing didn't immediately "pour" points on Moritz. Instead, he met with him first. Qin Keqing wanted to know Moritz's current thoughts. What if he wanted to give the Golden Bear after reading "Old Boys"?

Why bother "smashing" points? You might as well save them and use them to "smash" those who need them more.

The Berlin Film Festival was about to open, so Moritz was quite busy. After arriving in Berlin, Qin Keqing called him, and he didn't find time to meet with Qin Keqing until the next day.

On the bright side, the fact that he made time to meet with Qin Keqing, especially the very next day, shows that he values ​​Qin Keqing quite a bit.

On the darker side, the fact that he didn't make time to meet with Qin Keqing immediately suggests that "Old Boy" is probably no longer a candidate for the Golden Bear; otherwise, he would definitely have met with Qin Keqing right away.

After talking with Qin Keqing for more than half an hour, Moritz personally took away a copy of "Old Boys" instead of having Qin Keqing submit it to the organizing committee, which shows to some extent how much he valued it.

Moritz returned to his office, glanced at the time, hesitated for a moment, and said to his assistant, "Call Barco and Klopp and tell them to wait for me in the small screening room."