This director loves making friends.

At the red carpet ceremony of the 44th Berlin International Film Festival, which is also the closing ceremony of the Berlin Film Festival, the crew of "Oldboys" did not receive any special treatment.

The organizing committee arranged for the red carpet to be held a little towards the end of the middle, which is a very ordinary time slot.

Both Ren Dahua and Xu Jinglei in the crew were somewhat disappointed.

Since its premiere as the opening film, "Oldboy" has generated a great deal of discussion and is considered by many to be one of the most likely contenders for the Golden Bear at this year's awards.

However, judging from the order of the red carpet appearances, the first film crew to walk the red carpet was "Strawberry and Chocolate" from Cuba, which garnered a lot of attention.

This film is touted as Cuba's first gay film, with a simple setting and a very small budget.

It's really small.

In an interview, director Gutierrez Aleja said that the film's budget was less than $2, and even their airfare to Berlin was sponsored by the Berlin government...

But that was Cuba, and it was the first gay film ever made.

Therefore, some people believe that this film is sure to win awards, and may even win a major award.

The last film to walk the red carpet was "In the Name of the Father," another strong contender for this year's Golden Bear. Like "Oldboy," this film was also packed with "buffs."

However, the "buff" in "Old Boys" was deliberately created.

"In the Name of the Father," on the other hand, is a film that is already packed with "buffs."

According to Ren Dahua, Xu Jinglei, and others, the fact that the popular film "Old Boy" was only scheduled for a "normal" time slot on the red carpet raises questions about whether...

They dare not think.

Xu Jinglei, in particular, has refrained from discussing the script with Qin Keqing for the past ten days since arriving in Berlin. This is not because she changed her mind, but because she decided to save the important moments for the important moments.

Is there any moment more important than Oldboy winning an award?

If "Old Boys" fails to win an award, Xu Jinglei's plan will fall through, and she will definitely be very disappointed.

"What are you all doing? Why do you all look so preoccupied?"

Qin Keqing could roughly guess what some people were thinking, but he didn't point it out. Instead, he smiled and said, "It's almost our turn. Are you nervous? Cheer up, there are so many media reporters taking pictures soon."

As one of the top contenders for the Golden Bear, the cast and crew of "Old Boys" were certainly the center of attention on the red carpet. In addition, Qin Keqing is quite well-known in Europe, so the photo and interview areas were constantly crowded.

This stands in stark contrast to the production crews before and after.

"Why."

After passing through the photo and interview areas, Ren Dahua gently nudged Lin Guobin with his elbow.

"Bin, you have experience attending Cannes and Venice. Judging from the buzz just now, our crew is quite popular with the media. So why did the organizing committee give us such an ordinary red carpet session?"

Lin Guobin really wanted to say, "What experience do I have? How would I know what those big shots are thinking?"

In addition, he was also worried that perhaps "Old Boys" lost in the awards, and the organizing committee deliberately chose such an ordinary time slot for the red carpet in order to reduce the attention on "Old Boys".

But he certainly couldn't voice his concerns.

"You haven't been involved in the three major European film festivals, so you don't understand. There are some things here that can only be understood intuitively, not explained in words. You know what I mean, right?"

Ren Dahua didn't understand at first.

After carefully considering Lin Guobin's words, a sudden thought struck him.

"You mean...?"

"That's exactly what you mean."

Lin Guobin nodded slightly and said mysteriously in a low voice.

Ren Dahua could no longer suppress the smile on his lips.

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Xu Jinglei, who had been eavesdropping, could no longer suppress the smile on her lips.

Lü Liangwei could no longer suppress the smile on his face.

Looking at their expressions, Lin Guobin could no longer suppress his anxiety: Would they gang up on me tonight?

Several people followed Qin Keqing to the end of the red carpet, where Berlin Film Festival Chairman Moritz was already waiting.

The Berlin Film Festival president will attend the entire awards ceremony red carpet event and shake hands with the creators of all the films nominated for the main competition, which is a fixed official part of the red carpet process.

"Qin, you look very handsome tonight. Good luck."

Moritz shook Qin Keqing's hand, said some polite words, and even had the official media accompanying him take photos.

However, as Qin Keqing was about to leave, he patted Qin Keqing on the shoulder, a slightly intimate gesture that differed from his usual politeness towards other film crews.

Even after the last cast of the night, "In the Name of the Father," walked the red carpet, Moritz stretched his stiff neck slightly. He was about to give an interview, or rather a speech, before an awards ceremony, which was part of the usual procedure.

In this interview, Moritz will discuss topics such as the quality of films at this year's film festival and industry trends.

Good evening, friends from the media.

"Having just walked the red carpet, the image of Ms. Sophia Loren is still fresh in my mind. Tonight, Berlin is dazzling with stars; this is a night for cinema."

Sophia Loren received the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement, so he mentioned Sophia Loren first.

"I have to get straight to the point today. Some people say that the Berlin Film Festival has been completely controlled by Hollywood, which is not true, but it is a wake-up call for us."

We European filmmakers cannot remain silent in our comfort zones and let Hollywood films steal all our audiences. Many of our films are now too verbose and pretentious, straying from their own value system. This is the core reason why audiences are turning away.

Last year's ATT cultural products trade negotiations were a crucial point in determining the future of European cinema. If we equate cultural products with ordinary commodities and allow Hollywood's distribution network to spread unimpeded throughout European cinemas, local low-budget art films will have no room to survive.

Our insistence on "cultural exception" is not about trade protectionism, but about giving European creators some breathing room.

This year, we awarded the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement to Sophia Loren to tell everyone that the golden age of European cinema has never gone away. As filmmakers, we must have our own principles and not compromise in the face of the immense power of Hollywood.

Like the Cuban film *Strawberry and Chocolate* in the main competition, it had no big budget and no big stars, yet it vividly and energetically captured the fears and taboos of contemporary Cuba. This is the kind of power we're looking for—the power of film itself.

At this point, Moritz glanced at the crowd of reporters below and suddenly laughed.

"Speaking of the power of film itself and the perseverance of filmmakers, I suddenly thought of an interesting incident that happened at this year's film festival, which also reflects the Berlin Film Festival's consistent uncompromising style."

The reporters in the audience perked up. Unyielding in the face of Hollywood's immense power? Chairman Moritz was clearly implying something.

As is well known, Gilles Jacob, the artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival, took office around the same time as Moritz, but Gilles chose a different path, which was to compromise a little bit with Hollywood films.

During the Cannes Film Festival, Hollywood films make up almost half of the film market. In recent years, even the nominated films in the main competition have begun to lean towards Hollywood films.

Moritz's words were practically a direct attack.

The reporters thought this was the biggest news the Berlin Film Festival president had dropped today, but little did they know, something even more explosive was yet to come.

"The red carpet ceremony is over, and the awards ceremony is about to begin, but have you noticed something is missing today?"

Moritz smiled and looked at the reporter.

Before the reporter could react, Moritz revealed the answer with a smile.

"You haven't met the judges for the main competition yet, have you? Haven't you seen a single one today?"

Upon hearing Moritz's words, the reporters realized that, as is customary, the judges would walk down the red carpet to express their gratitude, led by the chairman of the jury.

Today, the cast and crew of "In the Name of the Father" finished walking the red carpet, and that was the end of it. None of the jury members walked the red carpet.

"Do you know why? Because the final grand prize for tonight hasn't been decided yet!"

Moritz's words were absolutely earth-shattering.

The awards ceremony is about to begin in about ten minutes. The grand prize, which should be the Golden Bear, hasn't been decided yet.

How is that possible?

This is impossible!

This was the reporter's first reaction.

Then everyone realized that Chairman Moritz would never joke about something like this at a press conference.

"This is big news!"

"I've said before that the Berlin Film Festival is the most professional and fairest in the world!"

As he spoke, Moritz held out his hands, gesturing for the reporters to put them down, not to ask questions, and to quiet down.

"You might not believe it, but you can interview any of the judges afterwards. From the beginning of the film festival, the judges started voting for the Golden Bear award, but coincidentally, there were two films that received the same number of votes no matter how they voted!"

Moritz, like the reporters, wore an incredulous expression and gestured for them to be quiet again.

"I know you may not believe it. When the jury told me about it, I didn't believe it either, but it just so happens that those two films had a loyal following among the jury members, and they were very steadfast in their support."

"This kind of thing has actually happened before. It happened at the Venice Film Festival, the Cannes Film Festival, and even last year at Berlin."

"The extreme scenario of a tie after multiple rounds of voting is a special case not explicitly covered by the judging rules. The film festival rules have clear provisions for this situation: the festival director has independent final decision-making power and can directly give the final decision."

"However, I will not exercise my final decision-making power; that would be unfair! Unfair to both films."

In fact, in such situations, if the entire jury unanimously agrees, the award will be given to both films.

"However, this year saw the emergence of what I call 'persistence'!"

"Here, I would like to express my special thanks to judge Ms. Xu Feng. It was her persistent insistence that it would be unfair to give an award to two films and that she disagreed with doing so... This is the kind of persistence that filmmakers should have."

"If filmmakers could all maintain this selfless dedication, uphold the rules, and adhere to principles, why would art films lack a future? Why worry about Hollywood films crowding out the space for art films?"

"I told the jury that even if they can't choose the winner of the grand prize today, I won't use my decision-making power. You should learn from Ms. Xu Feng, respect art, and uphold the bottom line... I wish them good luck and hope they can choose tonight's special grand prize before the awards ceremony ends."

"Finally, in respect of Ms. Xu Feng's perseverance, I hereby announce that from now on, no two or more works will be allowed to share the award in any of the main competition categories. This will be an inviolable bottom line for the awards."

"Thank you. Let's wait and see; the Berlin Film Festival will have an even brighter future."

Moritz smiled as he watched the reporters below start to "mess up" again, a cold sneer running through his mind.

He believes that from now on, every film selected for the main competition of the Berlin Film Festival will be "happy" to greet Ms. Xu Feng when they think about how they can't win all the awards they already have.

That was absolutely wonderful.

Of course, this also includes the creators of all the films in this year's main competition, especially the creators of one of those two films, who will surely be "happy" to greet Xu Feng.

Moritz's interview before the awards ceremony today took a while; just as he finished, the awards ceremony at the Palais des Festivals began.

However, the filmmakers who were already seated were unaware that, thanks to Ms. Xu Feng's positive influence, starting tonight, the Berlin Film Festival would no longer have any double-yolk awards.

I believe they will be very grateful to Ms. Xu Feng once they learn all this after the awards ceremony.

"here we go."

Xu Jinglei sat to Qin Keqing's right. She secretly glanced at Qin Keqing and began to pray that she would gain something tonight, even if it was just a small consolation prize.

Then, as awards were continuously presented, Xu Jinglei became increasingly anxious.

First, the Outstanding Individual Award was given to the French film "Smoking/No Smoking".

The Alfred Award was unexpectedly given to the South Korean film "Avatamsaka Sutra," which is also a religious film with the core idea of ​​realizing that "all things in the world are manifestations of the mother."

Generally speaking, religious films, as long as they are made in a "mystical" way and take a philosophical approach to life, may not necessarily win major awards at the three major European film festivals, but they are quite likely to win awards.

The Best Actress award went to British actress Krish Locke.

The Best Actor award went to Tom Hanks for his performance in "Philadelphia," beating Simon Yam, who was a favorite at this year's film festival.

Although Ren Dahua was applauding Tom Hanks, it was clear that he was still very disappointed.

His performance in "Oldboy" was described as "phenomenal" by many program publications, but unexpectedly he lost to Tom Hanks.

That's it for tonight. Only the Best Director, Jury Prize, and Best Picture awards remain.

"Old Boys" has yet to win any awards. Considering the timing of their red carpet appearances tonight, everyone—Xu Jinglei, Ren Dahua, Lin Guobin, and Lü Liangwei—felt a sense of emptiness.

Are we really going to go home empty-handed?