This director loves making friends.

Moritz did not explain why today's "Jury Prize" was special; he believed that the people here would know after the awards ceremony.

"The award I'm about to present is a special jury prize, perhaps it could also be called the Jury Grand Prize. Let's see which lucky film will win it!"

At this point, Moritz specifically gestured for the camera to zoom in, giving the envelope a close-up. The large screen showed that the envelope was indeed sealed and had not been opened.

Although I don't know why this consolation prize is special, since it was presented by the film festival chairman himself, it is indeed a bit special, and it can be considered an honor.

This award, which wasn't in tonight's schedule, caught the attention of everyone in the "Old Boys" crew.

Ren Dahua watched Moritz open the envelope with anticipation. It would be wonderful if "Old Boys" could receive a special award personally presented by the festival chairman.

Xu Jinglei also stared at Moritz's movements, and as Moritz opened the envelope, she felt both expectant and nervous.

Lin Guobin and Lü Liangwei are examples of this.

Considering the awards at this year's film festival, it really seems like this award was made specifically for "Oldboy".

Furthermore, although this award is called the "Jury Award," the festival chairman just added the word "grand," and given that it is awarded before the Golden Bear, it seems to be no less prestigious than the Special Jury Prize.

They had already decided that if "Oldboy" won the award, they would say it was the "Jury Grand Prize" in interviews. After all, it was said by the president of the Berlin Film Festival, so no one would deliberately correct that.

"The Jury Prize? That sounds good."

Xu Jinglei watched eagerly as Moritz opened the envelope, glanced at it, and then closed it before leaning her head close to the microphone.

She was both more excited and more nervous.

Xu Jinglei had already planned it all out. As soon as the words "Old Boy" appeared, she would immediately turn around and hug Qin Keqing tightly. In this situation, whatever she did, even taking the opportunity to kiss Qin Keqing on the cheek, would be normal.

"The winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the main competition section of the 44th Berlin International Film Festival is...."

Moritz paused only slightly before smiling and saying, "Congratulations to 'In the Name of the Father,' congratulations on winning tonight's most special Jury Prize, congratulations..."

Xu Jinglei almost stood up; she almost hugged Qin Keqing.

Fortunately, I reacted in time.

After realizing what had happened, I felt a sense of loss and emptiness.

The guests in the audience did not applaud immediately, but were quiet for a moment. This award was truly unexpected. No one thought that "In the Name of the Father" would "only" receive the Jury Prize.

However, as someone started clapping, applause began to spread.

Xu Jinglei also mechanically clapped along.

She first looked at Qin Keqing, who was still smiling and seemed unaffected. This puzzled Xu Jinglei. "You have this expression with every award from beginning to end. What does it mean?"

Don't you care about the awards tonight?

Then she looked at Ren Dahua, Lin Guobin and Lü Liangwei. The three of them also looked rather unhappy and were clapping perfunctorily.

Then, she heard Qin Keqing mutter to himself in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, "In the Name of the Father won an award, why aren't you happy?"

"Why should I be happy that 'In the Name of the Father' won an award?"

Xu Jinglei was still wondering when she saw Lin Guobin's clapping hand pause for a moment, and then, as if he had been stimulated, he started clapping wildly.

The "slap slap slap" sound was clearly audible to Xu Jinglei, even though Qin Keqing and Ren Dahua were between them.

"Are you crazy?"

Before Xu Jinglei could even wonder what was going on, she saw Ren Dahua and Lü Liangwei clapping enthusiastically, as if they had been stimulated.

If you didn't know better, you'd think they'd won an award.

Awarded?

Xu Jinglei, who was only 19 years old and a freshman in college, finally realized what was happening.

You can find the latest updated chapters of this book by searching "Deqi Novel Network" on Bing!

"Award won!"

Who is the biggest competitor of "Old Boys"?

Without a doubt, almost every media outlet, whether it's the program booklet or other media outlets, listed "In the Name of the Father" and "Old Boys" as the biggest competitors for the Golden Bear.

Now, Old Boys' biggest competitor, In the Name of the Father, has won an award!

It's not the Golden Bear yet!

What does this mean?

Xu Jinglei also started clapping excitedly, applauding "In the Name of the Father," saying that "In the Name of the Father" truly deserved this award!

Congratulations!

Congratulations are a must, and we must express our respect for "In the Name of the Father".

For a moment, when "In the Name of the Father" won the award, the crew of "Old Boys" seemed as happy as if they themselves had won the award, and they were all applauding enthusiastically.

In contrast, the crew of "In the Name of the Father" were all smiling, but their smiles were forced and perfunctory.

Director Jim Sheridan, in particular, politely declined the award with the producer who accompanied him, appearing very humble and seemingly wanting to give the honor of receiving the award to the producer.

However, unless it's the Golden Bear Award, where the entire crew, including the producer, sometimes goes on stage to accept the award, the producer doesn't usually go on stage to accept the award, even for the second-place Jury Special Award.

Unlike the Oscars, the producer of the Oscar for Best Picture receives the award.

At the three major European film festivals, even though the top prizes—the Golden Bear, the Palme d'Or, and the Golden Lion—are called Best Film, it is always the director who receives the award and gives the acceptance speech.

Hollywood is producer-centric, while the three major European film festivals, including China's, are director-centric.

Finally, somewhat reluctant director Jim Sheridan went on stage and accepted the Silver Bear Jury Prize from festival president Moritz.

Although Moritz called it a special award, no one would be truly happy to give this award to a director who had a chance to win the Golden Bear.

At the very least, it should be Best Director or the second-place Jury Special Award; that might make me a little happier.

Jim Sheridan's acceptance speech was also extremely brief. He quickly thanked a few people, didn't even symbolically raise the little silver bear, and then hurriedly left the stage.

In short, although he said he was happy to receive the award in his acceptance speech, he didn't seem genuinely excited or happy about it.

"Splash splash splash..."

The guests in the audience started applauding again.

The crew of "Old Boys" applauded enthusiastically, seemingly genuinely happy that "In the Name of the Father" had won an award.

Next, we'll discuss the final major award, the Golden Bear.

Under normal circumstances, the Best Film award is presented by the chairman of the jury, together with one or two core jury members.

This year is no exception.

Jury president Jeremy Thomas considered almost everything before making a special invitation to Xu Feng, who was highly praised by Berlin Film Festival president Moritz.

Xu Feng didn't want to go.

As a member of the jury, and as a "fair" judge who insisted on her own opinions, she witnessed the birth of a Golden Bear-winning film from start to finish.

Furthermore, her active participation was crucial to this success; in fact, it could be said that she played an indispensable and significant role in the film's winning of the Golden Bear, and even in winning it as a solo artist.

It's no exaggeration to say that without her, tonight's Golden Bear-winning film would never have had the chance to win the award alone.

However, even with such a great contribution, she still didn't want to go.

I really don't want to.

She could only think of the phone calls she had received not long ago from her husband, her teacher Hu Jinquan, and Pierre Lissent, a senior film selector at the Cannes Film Festival and the right-hand man of the festival's artistic director.

Xu Feng regained consciousness.

Yes, I've come to my senses.

Xu Feng's education level was not high; she went to make movies when she was in her second year of vocational school.

She was very lucky to meet her teacher Hu Jinquan, and she hardly encountered any setbacks before Hu Jinquan made her a big star.

Then, in her twenties, when she became a famous "heroine," she met her current wealthy husband and was well protected.

I married my current husband when I was thirty, and there were no dramatic events.

At the age of thirty-four, in 1984, he moved behind the scenes and founded Tomson Films.

Although the company has not produced any blockbuster films in the past ten years, it has not lost money and has made a lot of money due to the boom in Hong Kong films.

And in 93, they produced the Palme d'Or-winning film "Farewell My Concubine".

Xu Feng has had a smooth and successful career since entering the film industry.

Before she became famous, she was protected by Hu Jinquan and never suffered any losses.

After she became famous, she had her current wealthy husband protecting her, so she never suffered any losses.

She could even say, "My sister is doing so well!"

Therefore, the film "Farewell My Concubine" was targeted and lost tens of millions of yuan in mainland China, which was a huge blow to her. This is different from investing in a film that flops.

If the movie I invested in flops, there's nothing I can do about it.

But if a film is very successful and wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and then loses tens of millions of dollars for some reason, that's unacceptable.

Unable to confront that behemoth head-on, she could only shift all the blame onto "A Bittersweet Life," which was targeting "Farewell My Concubine," and pin the blame on director Qin Keqing.

When a woman acts impulsively, especially a woman who has had a smooth and successful life, who has never suffered any losses and has been well protected, there is no reasoning with her.

However, given Moritz's remarks during a post-red carpet interview, such a significant event spread extremely quickly.

Those connected to Xu Feng finally learned what she had done.

They all called her, and you can imagine what the conversations were about.

She finally regained consciousness.

Xu Feng wanted to refuse the invitation from jury chairman Jeremy Thomas, who had ill intentions.

But she had already realized it, or rather, been frightened awake.

She did not refuse.

Jeremy Thomas didn't make fun of Xu Feng, even though he hated Xu Feng to the core, as she had put him, the chairman of the judging panel, in an extremely passive position and almost made him lose face on the world stage. But he was British, and British people still had to maintain their composure on the surface.

The fact that Xu Fengneng was allowed to go on stage to present the award was the greatest punishment for her.

Good evening, distinguished guests.

In Berlin in 1994, we saw on the screen the most vivid expressions of humanity from different corners of the world. Our jury repeatedly deliberated on the 22 shortlisted films…

At this point, I couldn't help but glare at Xu Feng. It was all because of this woman that she had been going back and forth on her decision!

In the end, the British film that could have won the Golden Bear did not receive it.

Thinking about this, Jeremy Thomas got angry.

He had promised Jim Sheridan, the director of "In the Name of the Father," and Universal Pictures, the producer, but because of this woman, everything was ultimately ruined.

"After much deliberation, we made a decision that broke with convention. You will all know what I mean by breaking with convention later... In short, it was a difficult decision."

After a brief pause, Jeremy Thomas seemed somewhat disheartened and suddenly didn't want to say anything more.

So, I skipped the script I had memorized and went straight to the result.

The film that won Best Film at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival is…

Jeremy Thomas glanced at Xu Feng beside him, then with a "rip," he opened the envelope, handed it to Xu Feng without even looking at it.

He said with a smile, "Madam, I think you would love to announce the best film of the night. This is the result of your 'insistence,' so please do it."

He couldn't resist making a sarcastic remark.

"I love your mom!"

Xu Feng really wanted to curse him out.

But she can't.

She didn't even need to look at the envelope; the judging panel had only recently reached a final decision.

Xu Feng never expected that, after a continuous series of votes with the same number of votes, just when everyone was getting anxious, Morgan Freeman, a judge from Hollywood, suddenly "defected"!

This damn old black man had always been a supporter of "In the Name of the Father".

Who would have thought he would suddenly "switch sides" and vote for "Old Boys"?

It's worth noting that "In the Name of the Father" was produced by Universal Pictures in Hollywood, and Morgan Freeman, as a famous Hollywood actor, has collaborated with Universal quite a bit.

Xu Feng still can't understand why Morgan Freeman "betrayed" her, as if the whole world was against her.

But this has already become a fait accompli.

She didn't want to read the name on the envelope.

The name was too ironic for her.

It was like a nightmare.

She didn't understand, she really couldn't figure it out, why? Why did this movie have to do this?

Her original idea was that as long as she put in a little effort and showed the jury her determination and Berlin her persistence, the film would be eliminated.

Who knew it would turn out like this?

I wonder what kind of spell Qin Keqing cast on Berlin and the jury.

But when the time came, no matter what she thought, she had to grit her teeth and read it aloud, read out that hateful name.

"Old Boys..."