Huayu: Just started as a stagehand, but the director's comeback system

As the judges presented the awards for the individual categories, Jiang Huai saw Bai Ling give him a faint smile on the stage.

Jiang Huai, who had been relatively calm, was stirred by the other party's smile.

The initial speculation was about whether I would win an award, but now it has become about how many awards I could win.

Faced with honor, Jiang Huai simply couldn't remain unmoved.

Gu Changwei, who was next to Jiang Huai, felt that his breathing had become heavier. He turned his head and found that Jiang Huai's hands were clenched into fists.

Unfortunately, his attention wasn't on Bai Ling just now; he only thought Jiang Huai was excited because the awards ceremony for the main competition was approaching.

Still young.

After a moment of reflection, Gu Changwei turned his attention back to the awards stage.

The chairman of the jury, Roland, had already arrived near the podium; the next item on the agenda was the awards for the main competition.

"Good afternoon, everyone. I am director Roland, and I am honored to serve as the president of the jury at this year's Berlin Film Festival."

As Roland walked onto the stage with his card, he introduced himself, and applause immediately erupted from the audience.

Seeing this, Roland didn't linger. After bowing in thanks, he immediately picked up the card that recorded all the awards.

"Silver Bear for Best Original Score... Congratulations to Alexandre Desplat, France, for *Heart Stop*!"

A white foreigner whom Jiang Huai didn't recognize went on stage and rattled off a bunch of incomprehensible foreign words, to which Jiang Huai gave a symbolic clapping.

"Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Achievement... Congratulations to Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwan, for 'The Wayward Cloud'!"

Although Jiang Huai didn't know the other party either, they were all one family across the strait, so Jiang Huai clapped much harder this time.

The next award was the Silver Bear for Best Actor. Liao Fan was having some difficulty breathing at that moment, so even though Tsai Ming-liang's thank-you speech was lengthy, not a single word reached Liao Fan's ears.

After Tsai Ming-liang stepped down, Liao Fan kept his eyes glued to Roland, afraid of missing a single word.

"Silver Bear for Best Actor... Congratulations to Liao Fan for 'Black Coal, Thin Ice', China!"

After winning the Best Actor award, which was followed by other important awards, Roland paused for a much longer period of time.

During the pause, Liao Fan even forgot to breathe.

When his name was called out, Liao Fan felt as if the top of his head had been ripped open.

After a moment of stunned silence, Liao Fan practically jumped to his feet. After embracing Jiang Huai, his eyes were fixed on the trophy on the stage, completely oblivious to Gu Changwei, who was also eagerly awaiting a hug.

Fortunately, Gu Changwei understood. He had been here before, and everyone who won an award for the first time felt the same way.

Even though Liao Fan ignored him, Gu Changwei still clapped loudly for him until Roland spoke.

"Welcome, Liao Fan!"

After Roland hugged Liao Fan, he immediately made way for Liao Fan so that Liao Fan could give his acceptance speech in front of all the cameras.

"Thank you to the Berlin Film Festival, thank you to the jury for awarding me this prize, and of course, thank you to director Jiang Huai for choosing me to play the role of Zhang Zili."

This is all so incredible to me. I used to dream of standing here, but it always seemed so far away. But now I'm actually standing here. I did it!

Liao Fan practically shouted his last two sentences.

Therefore, before the simultaneous interpreter had finished translating, the foreigners in the audience, sensing Liao Fan's excitement, also applauded.

Because of the shouts earlier, Liao Fan's excitement had subsided somewhat after he stepped off the stage.

But once he returned to his seat, Jiang Huai and Gu Changwei ignored him.

Best Actor and Best Actress come next, followed by Best Director and the Jury Prize.

The latter two are the most important awards of the Silver Bear, so Jiang and Huai only hoped that the German actress on stage would speak less.

"Silver Bear for Best Director..."

After Julia Roberts, the winner of the Best Actress award, stepped down from the stage, Roland immediately announced the next award.

However, this pause lasted a long time, during which the constantly shaking camera appeared on the screen behind Roland.

There are only two people on the screen: Jiang Huai and German director Marc Rothmond.

Upon seeing this, Jiang Huai tightened his grip on Liao Fan's right hand considerably.

He hopes to win Best Director, but he is also afraid that if he wins Best Director, he will lose the Golden Bear Award.

Congratulations to Jianghuai, China, on the release of "Black Coal, Thin Ice"!

As Roland finished speaking, only Jiang Huai remained on the screen.

Therefore, everyone present could clearly see the slight dilation of Jiang Huai's pupils.

The domestic reporters at the very back recorded every movement Jiang Huai made after getting up, which was far more exaggerated than when Liao Fan went on stage.

"Congratulations, Director Jiang Huai, you are really young."

Roland is exactly fifty years old this year, and he looks at the spirited Jiang Huai with a lot of emotion.

According to the Berlin Film Festival, the Best Director award should have been given to Marc.

After all, at the Berlin Film Festival, only one German actress won an award in the main competition. Their official team would probably be accused of being traitors by the local German media.

When Roland saw Jiang Huai's photo of him laughing wildly, he was reminded of the time he filmed "Noah's Ark" in 1984.

Furthermore, Jiang Huai is also a screenwriter and producer, making them practically identical.

With so many factors in place, Roland, as the president of the jury, pushed back the film festival officials.

"You are my idol, director Roland. I really like your film Independence Day."

After a brief hug and greeting with Roland, Jiang Huai immediately began reading his prepared acceptance speech.

"I am honored to be standing here today, and I am also very grateful to the Berlin Film Festival and the jury for their recognition."

As a young director, I still have a long way to go, but no matter how much time passes, I will never forget raising the Best Director trophy today!

Just as Jiang Huai finished speaking, someone outside the guild hall started setting off fireworks.

Berlin was bright in the afternoon, with daytime fireworks that were dazzling even amidst enthusiastic applause.

Jiang Huai didn't express too much emotion. He still had the Golden Bear for Best Film to look forward to. He was too excited now, and if he won the award again, his tone would be too calm.

After Liao Fan got excited, Jiang Huai got excited, and after Jiang Huai got excited, it was Gu Changwei's turn to get excited.

When people are nervous, they subconsciously grip any object they can reach tightly.

Just now, Jiang Huai was holding Liao Fan's left hand tightly, and now Gu Changwei is holding Jiang Huai's left hand even harder than before.

The Jury Grand Prize, being the most important award of the Silver Bear, had a pause that lasted almost twice as long as before.

Fortunately, Gu Changwei was the final winner; otherwise, Jiang Huai felt that his left hand might have been crushed by the other party.

Jiang Huai was still not in the mood to listen to Gu Changwei's speech; the most important award of the day, the Golden Bear for Best Film, was the next one.

This time, the most important thing needs no embellishment; only twenty-one films out of thousands worldwide received the nomination.

Ultimately, the Golden Bear award will be contested among these 21 films, making it a highly anticipated event.

All 21 nominated directors were present. Even if they thought their chances were slim, there was always hope before the winners were announced.

After Gu Changwei stepped down, the screen behind Roland immediately split into twenty-one sections.

The directors in the shots all have different expressions, but they all have their own little gestures that reveal their inner turmoil.

When the nominations for the 21st Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival were announced.

Almost all casinos in Europe offer odds on the Golden Bear winner.

As a film that was unanimously favored by distributors, "Black Coal, Thin Ice" had the second lowest odds before the market closed, with the lowest being "Carmen of Kayalissa" by South African director Mark Dornford-May.

Casinos are always quick enough to sense and guess in this regard.

"The winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film..."

As Roland paused as usual, the cameras on the screen behind him went black one by one.

In the end, only Jiang Huai and another Mark remained.

Congratulations to Jiang Huai, director of "Black Coal, Thin Ice," China!

Although the two Marks are of different races, Jiang Huai still had the last laugh.

This award aims to be objective and to balance the opinions of each member of the judging panel.

But until humans can be completely selfless, everyone will have their own subjective thoughts.

Of the final two competitors, Roland still favored Jiang Huai, with Bai Ling also supporting him. The other judges were not familiar with either Jiang Huai or Mark.

So they simply agreed to award the Best Film award to Jiang Huai, which way they wouldn't offend Roland and they wouldn't have to take the blame if problems arose later.

This time, Jiang Huai stood up in the same way as before, but to the people around him, Jiang Huai was now radiating light.

Three nominations for the main competition, and three nominations—no one at this year's Berlin Film Festival can compare to Jiang Huai.

"Director Jiang Huai, it seems my congratulations came a little too early."

"But this is the last time today."

Jiang Huai's smile vanished, and this time he made no attempt to hide his arrogance.

The podium wasn't very high, but Jianghuai now had to look down at the crowd below.

Who can rival us now?

"Actually, I already finished my acceptance speech. I never expected to be standing here twice today."

Jiang Huai's words were somewhat joking, but even with simultaneous translation, the eyes of everyone present still held only envy.

"I'll keep it simple this time. My name is Jiang Huai, and I'm a director."

Having already expressed his gratitude, Jiang Huai simply abandoned the speech he had already memorized, as few people could remember those verbose details.

He wanted to use the simplest words to make everyone who follows the Golden Bear remember him.

After speaking, Jiang Huai hugged Roland, who had returned to his side, once again, and then walked back to his seat.

Everyone sitting here was surprised that Jiang Huai's speech would be so brief. When Jiang Huai and Roland gave each other a short hug, everyone thought that Jiang Huai would have more to say later.

Therefore, the applause didn't reach Jiang Huai's ears until he stepped off the award stage.

After today's bumper harvest, Jianghuai has no interest in paying attention to the awards that follow.

That means I'll be giving an interview to the film festival officials later, otherwise Jianghuai would be negotiating copyright prices with the most famous film and television companies in the country right now.

As for what happened next, Jiang Huai only remembered that Tsai Ming-liang, who was also Chinese, went up on the award stage twice.

Moreover, he glanced at Jiang Huai quite a few times on the awards stage.

As an art-house film director, Jiang Huai didn't know much about Tsai Ming-liang. He only remembered that some people in the industry called Jia Zhangke "Little Tsai Ming-liang".

However, those things had little to do with him; Tsai Ming-liang's second Alfred Bauer Prize was the final award in the main competition.

After the other party finished speaking, Jiang Huai was led by staff to accept an official interview with the film festival.

"Hello Director Jiang, do you have an English name that I can use to address you?"

Chinese characters are really too difficult for foreigners to pronounce. It's not just this reporter; almost every foreigner pronounces his name as "Jiang Huai."

Jiang Huai thought for a moment and felt that since he had proven himself internationally, he should give himself an English name so that these foreigners could pronounce it.

"Let's call it Chiang-river."

"River? Is it because of the movie of the same name directed by Tsai?"

"Yes, that's right. Director Tsai Ming-liang is my idol. I really like his work, River."

Jiang Huai couldn't think of a good English name in a short time, so he simply chose an English name that was similar to his own name.

Because these foreigners couldn't keep up with the development in China, and the Chinese pinyin system hadn't caught up yet, they used the Wade-Giles system, which is still used internationally, to translate their surnames.

However, he never expected that Tsai Ming-liang would have a movie with the same name.

But since the reporter had asked, and this segment was bound to be broadcast, Jiang Huai simply went along with it and used it as an opportunity to build a good relationship.

"Okay, Director Chiang, let's begin with our first question today: Your film 'Black Coal, Thin Ice' received two nominations and won both. How do you feel about that?"

Although the Best Director award was chosen from among the directors nominated for the Golden Bear for Best Picture.

However, it is generally accepted that the Best Director nomination should be a separate one.

In previous years, the Berlin Film Festival also listed it separately, but Jiang Huai did not refute it when he saw the staff behind the reporter almost kneeling down to him, and accepted the other party's statement.

He could roughly guess that China won almost half of the awards in this year's main competition, and those old Berliners would probably have to rename it the BJ Film Festival.

In order to quell the impending uproar in Berlin, the subsequent interviews were quite conservative, focusing almost entirely on Jiang Huai personally.

After the visit, Jiang Huai didn't want to linger in Berlin any longer. The time was running out, and he was worried about the safety of the country, especially the possibility of encountering extremists.

Therefore, after leaving the film festival venue, Jianghuai immediately met with several globally renowned film companies.

Ning Hao didn't quite understand Jiang Huai's approach, but the group of Jewish merchants did.

That's why I don't want them to negotiate the price, for fear they'll team up to lower the price.

These are all their usual tactics, but now both Daylight Fireworks and Jianghuai are worth their investment.

If a film can win an award for its director, then the director will only become famous.

If a film can win an award for an actor, then that's when a director is truly popular.

Now that Jianghuai has both of these advantages, it is clearly a high-quality stock. Compared with future returns, even if you spend a little more money today, it is not a loss.

Jiang Huai chose the hotel's conference room as the venue for the negotiations, and since there weren't many seats available, he simply set a minimum price of four million euros for the meeting.