This director loves making friends.

For Europe and the world, the night of the 46th Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony was undoubtedly a grand celebration for Chinese-language films.

Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or, the highest prize.

Qin Keqing's "Sweet Life" won two major awards: the Jury Special Award and the Golden Camera Award.

Hou Xiaoxian's "Life in a Dream" also won the Jury Prize.

Some people are bound to have opinions about Cannes awarding so many prizes to Chinese-language films, and many older white men's prejudice against Chinese people has never diminished.

However, a "preference" for Chinese-language films seems to be a major trend in recent years, with both the Venice Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival doing so.

The three major European countries seem to have a tacit understanding on this matter.

If you count them up, you'll see that it all started when Zhang Yimou won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1988.

In 1988, Zhang Yimou won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for his film "Red Sorghum".

In 1989, Hou Xiaoxian won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his film "A City of Sadness".

In 1990, Xie Fei won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution in the main competition section of the Berlin Film Festival for his work "The Year of My Birth".

In 1991, Zhang Yimou won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival for "Raise the Red Lantern." Also at that year's Venice Film Festival, the Golden Lion went to the Chinese-language film "Mongolian Spirit," shot in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia.

The male and female protagonists of "The Spirit of Mongolia" are both from Inner Mongolia.

However, the director of "Mongolian Spirit" is... Nikita Mikhalkov, whose nationality is somewhat indescribable.

When Nikita Mikhalkov was preparing for and filming "Mongolian Spirit," he was still a Soviet citizen. Just as the film was almost finished, the polar bear suddenly collapsed!

Nikita Mikhalkov was stunned and remained in China for quite some time, observing the situation.

When attending the Venice Film Festival, Nikita Mikhalkov was automatically classified as Russian.

In 1992, Zhang Yimou won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for "The Story of Qiu Ju," and Gong Li became the Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival.

In the same year, Maggie Cheung won the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival for her role in "Center Stage".

In 1993, Xie Fei won the Berlin Golden Bear for "Woman Sesame Oil Maker," while Li An also won the Berlin Golden Bear for "The Wedding Banquet"—the Berlin Golden Bear was awarded to Chinese-language films.

Next, we have the three Chinese-language films that won awards at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Compared to Berlin, Cannes' decision to award the Palme d'Or to only one Chinese-language film, "Farewell My Concubine," in a tie-breaker was already considered "conservative."

No other country in the world has won as many of the three major European awards as Chinese-language films in recent years.

This includes France, Italy, and Berlin, which are home to three major European countries.

In the past five years, Chinese-language films have won six awards at the three major European film festivals alone!

This does not include Nikita Mikhalkov's Chinese-language film "Mongolian Spirit." If that were included, that would be seven top awards in five years.

The three major European film festivals' tacit support for Chinese-language films is something Qin Keqing doesn't know if they have any other deeper intentions, but it is related to the "European Film Project" established in 1988.

In short, the establishment of the "European Film Project" is itself a policy measure taken by Europe to counter Hollywood's cultural hegemony.

The plan has a very clear objective: to target awards at numerous European film festivals. This provides non-American films, including Chinese-language films, with more funding, projects, and strategies to gain access to the European market.

Pierre Lissent told Qin Keqing about this, which is why Pierre Lissent, as the right-hand man of Gilles Jacob, the artistic director of the Cannes Film Festival, focuses on Chinese-language films.

It wasn't just Pierre Lissant of Cannes.

The Venice Film Festival does something similar; they also have a dedicated person in charge of selecting and recommending Chinese-language films, and this person wields considerable power. This person is Marco Müller.

As for the Berlin Film Festival, they took a different approach, directly contacting the Chinese Film Bureau. Initially, many Chinese-language films that went to the Berlin Film Festival were recommended by the Film Bureau.

However, things changed later. Most Chinese directors who had connections with Berlin bypassed the Film Bureau and contacted Berlin directly, preferring to participate in film festivals on their own.

After the Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony, the organizers will hold several press conferences to allow the winning films and their creators to be interviewed.

Under normal circumstances, the authorities will arrange multiple press conferences simultaneously in different venues.

However, perhaps to accommodate Chinese films and Chinese journalists who had traveled from afar, the three award-winning films were scheduled for different time slots.

This avoids the dilemma faced by reporters from China regarding which press conference to attend.

Then, Qin Keqing noticed something interesting: there were many mainland reporters at the press conference for "Farewell My Concubine," but not many asked questions; it was mostly reporters from Hong Kong and Taiwan who were asking questions.

On the contrary, at the press conferences for "A Bittersweet Life" and "The Puppetmaster," mainland reporters asked more questions, and almost all the reporters present raised their hands.

Qin Keqing thought about it for a moment and understood. "Farewell My Concubine" is still "banned" in mainland China. Nowadays, mainland media reporters are all official. No one will conduct interviews or ask questions without permission from above.

At the press conference for "A Sweet Life," the host called on a reporter from mainland China. He was clearly pleased, took the microphone, and quickly asked, "Hello, Director Qin, I am..."

"Speaking Mandarin is fine."

Qin Keqing interrupted the reporter with a smile, saying in Chinese that the reporter was speaking in English.

The host next to him glanced at Qin Keqing after hearing what the translator said, but didn't say anything.

"Huh? Oh, okay, okay."

The reporter paused for a moment, and seeing that the host did not object, asked in Mandarin: "Hello Director Qin, I am Xu Xin, a reporter from Xinhua News Agency. First of all, congratulations on winning the Golden Camera Award and the Jury Special Award."

"Thanks."

"According to the information I have, Director Qin is from Shandong Province in mainland China. How did you end up developing your career in Hong Kong? Will you return to the mainland to direct in the future?"

If it were any other mainland reporter, even one from CCTV, Qin Keqing could have given a slightly more official answer, but a Xinhua News Agency reporter…

We need to consider whether this was just a casual question from the reporter, or if there was another purpose behind it.

After a moment's thought, Qin Keqing smiled and said, "My trip to Hong Kong to film 'A Sweet Life' was somewhat accidental. Before going to Hong Kong, I was the assistant director of 'King of Beggars,' during which time I wrote the script for 'A Sweet Life,' which I originally intended to sell to a Hong Kong director."

As for why he planned to sell the film to a Hong Kong director, Qin Keqing didn't say. Those who understand will naturally understand: movies involving gangsters are still very difficult to get approved in mainland China.

"At the time, the director of the crew, Chen Jiashang, and Stephen Chow were very familiar with me. After reading my script, they suggested that I direct it myself, because they were worried that some directors might not be able to capture the core of what I wanted."

"So the two of them teamed up and recommended me to Win's Entertainment. Win's Entertainment approved the script, talked to me, and finally decided to let me direct the film myself."

After a pause, Qin Keqing continued, "I will definitely go back to the mainland to make movies, there's no doubt about that. Hong Kong is just for work, Shandong Province is my home."

After the press conference, Qin Keqing was to attend a celebration party hosted by Diamond Pictures. He invited Peng Jiesi, who readily agreed.