Huayu: The director just wants to save money

Chapter 826: Good works are not enough, we need more judges (4k6)

ps: There will be more later.

time flies.

In the blink of an eye, January of the new year is almost over.

While Zhou Mo was waiting for the first day of the new year to arrive, another big event happened that was worth mentioning.

The news of the 91st Oscar nomination list is out.

"Assault on Arkham" is among them.

Zhang Yimou went to America as early as the beginning of January, and while working, he waited for news about the Oscars.

When he learned that "Assault on Arkham" was successfully nominated, Zhang Yimou was so excited that he forgot the time difference and called Zhou Mo directly on his cell phone.

"Director Zhou, I'm so excited. This is my first time to be involved in an Oscar..."

When Lao Mouzi said this, his voice was obviously trembling slightly.

how many years.

The name of his work finally made it to the Oscars.

After so many years of obsession, he finally had a chance to get rid of it.

Listening to Lao Mouzi's voice, Zhou Mo always had a feeling that if he played a sad song for Lao Mouzi at this moment, this guy would probably cry.

I looked at the time. It was 2:30 in the morning, the dead of night.

Zhou Mo wrapped his coat around himself, yawned, and lowered his voice deliberately: "Director Zhang, I think there are two things you should do now. One is not to relax in the competition for this Oscar. Nominations are not everything. Black Panther is your strong competitor."

After these words were spoken, the old man on the other end of the phone instantly calmed down a lot.

Yes, nomination is just the beginning of the competition. Whether you can win the award or not, the next month will be very crucial.

Zhang Yimou has dreamed of winning an Oscar countless times, so he is very familiar with the Oscar process.

He took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down.

"Director Zhou, you are right. We really can't let our guard down now. Black Panther has a unique advantage in terms of awards. I don't expect to win all three awards, but at least we can't let Black Panther win all the awards."

Zhou Mo nodded slightly, and then talked about the second thing.

"The next thing is Parasite. Director Zhang said before that you wanted to keep improving, so the finished product can only be released in February. Now it's almost February, don't just focus on the Oscars and forget about Parasite, which will delay your registration for Cannes in March.

To put it bluntly, Parasite is much more important than Assault on Arkham, so don’t get carried away and put the cart before the horse.”

Zhou Mo reminded Zhang Yimou about "Parasite" because he was really worried that Zhang Yimou would be so obsessed with the Oscars that he would forget about other things.

Before Zhang Yimou went to America in January, he met with Zhou Mo. The purpose was to inform Zhou Mo and let him say hello to the people he knew in America in advance, and also to get some success from Zhou Mo.

Before this, Zhou Mo really didn't expect that Zhang Yimou would start to get so excited about success for this Oscar, which shows how much Zhang Yimou craves these awards.

So now, he had to make things clear to Zhang Yimou.

At this time, Lao Mouzi smiled.

"Don't worry, Director Zhou. Even if I'm thinking about the Oscars, I will never forget Cannes. Parasite is probably the only chance for me to win all three European awards in my lifetime. I can't miss it no matter what."

Zhou Mo said "hmm" and felt relieved.

Knowing that the opportunity to collect all three golds is rare, it means that the above is still online.

"Okay, then I'll wait for your good news, Director Zhang."

"Director Zhou..."

Lao Mouzi wanted to say something, but Zhou Mo had already hung up the phone.

Late in the night, waiting for dawn with a young lady is no easier than talking on the phone with a middle-aged man.

Unfortunately, before Zhou Mo returned to the room, another call came.

Zhou Mo wanted to turn off the phone immediately. It was the middle of the night and everyone was acting like crazy and not wanting to sleep, right?

However, after looking at the caller ID, I found that it was someone I couldn’t turn off:
Jiang Wen.

He patted his cheeks, trying to make himself as sober as possible.

Line connected.

"Hey, what happened that made you come to see me so late?"

"Nothing, I'm just in a bad mood." Jiang Wen's voice was a little dull on the phone, with a very obvious sense of dissatisfaction and resentment.

Zhou Mo shuddered suddenly, and his eyes were instantly filled with an emotion called "interest".

The sun rises from the west!
One day he actually heard resentment from Lao Jiang's mouth.

I looked at the time again, it was 2:50 in the morning, and I had a guess in my mind.

"What happened? Did you have a quarrel with Sister Yun?" Zhou Mo asked quietly, thinking he guessed right.

Unexpectedly, the next second, the sound of Tiger's snoring came from the receiver.

"How could that be? I'm in America now."

Zhou Mo curled his lips. What a guy. If he has something to say, why not just say it directly? He has to make me guess.

The sentence was so incoherent that I had no idea what was going on.

"No, your presence in America has nothing to do with your bad mood..."

Zhou Mo was halfway through his words when an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

America.

It's about two o'clock in the morning.

Only then did he remember that this year Jiang Wen was competing for the Best Foreign Language Oscar with "Hidden Man", and this was also his first time to represent mainland China in the competition for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.

However, the result of Jiang Wen’s attack this time was not very good.

Not to mention winning an award, he didn't even get nominated for Best Foreign Language Award.

Jiang Wen, what a proud person you are.

His debut was his peak, he won awards for acting and making movies. Even after "Let the Bullets Fly", the box office performance gradually became less outstanding, but his movies still managed to get at least one nomination at film festivals of the level of the three major European films.

However, this time when he applied for an Oscar, he didn't even get a nomination for Best Foreign Language Award.

It would be strange if I could be happy.

"Really, it's just a coincidence that you and Director Zhang called me to talk about the Oscars."

"Before and after?"

Jiang Wen muttered something, and his tone sounded a little annoyed. He didn't know whether he was annoyed that he failed to successfully compete for the Oscar, or annoyed that he called Zhou Mo too late, letting Lao Mouzi get there first.

"So you feel uncomfortable because you were not nominated?" Zhou Mo asked directly.

Jiang Wen's breathing was obviously rapid for a moment, and after a long while he slowly said: "No, I just suddenly remembered that I haven't talked to you for a while, so I called to ask how you are doing?"

Calling someone in the middle of the night to express concern for them.

Thank you very much.

Jiang Wen is interesting. He usually likes to point out that other people are twisted in this or that way, but in fact, he is the most twisted one.

I was originally calling Zhou Mo to talk about the Oscars, but when I heard Zhang Yimou's name, I wanted to change the subject. I didn't want to dwell on the Oscars anymore.

"Just concerned about me?"

"The Spring Festival is coming soon. I want to ask you how you are preparing."

At this time Zhou Mo finally figured out Jiang Wen's thoughts. The stubborn uncle was in a bad mood and came to him to seek approval, but he was still a little embarrassed, so he beat around the bush and let people guess.

"If you ask me, Lao Jiang, don't feel bad about this. If you just want a nomination, I have a script here. I guarantee you'll win an award after filming it."

There are many "good" things in his "charge library", and any one of them is worth an award.

However, Jiang Wen had no intention of responding, as if he had not heard Zhou Mo's proposal, and repeatedly dragged Zhou Mo to chat about family matters. This was the difference between him and Lao Mouzi.

Lao Mouzi has his own personality, but he also considers many situations beyond filming.

The only thing Jiang Wen cares about when making a movie is whether it meets his own wishes.

Zhou Mo had suggested scripts other than "Surprise Attack on the White Tigers" to him before, but Lao Jiang rejected them all without even thinking about it.

All the movies he has made over the years are about the same thing from beginning to end, a story that spans a long period of time and is very tortuous.

He won't consider other scripts until he has completely finished telling the story and has finished filming it.

Zhou Mo didn't want to practice Tai Chi with Jiang Wen anymore, so after chatting for a few more sentences he prepared to go to bed.

Before hanging up, another voice came from the other end of the phone:
"I'm going to take a look at the wartime script you gave me earlier."

"Okay, I'll send you the information later."

Zhou Mo agreed immediately. The so-called war-era scripts were the "Monkey" and "Elephant" that he had previously given to Marco.

By the time I hung up the phone, it was already 3:15.

Two phone calls, lasting forty-five minutes.

After all, he is a director, so he can chat.

Zhou Mo thought about it and simply turned off his phone to avoid someone calling him in the middle of the night.

I just put down my phone and looked up to see Da Tiantian appear in the living room at some point.

"Sorry for waking you up."

"No, just got up and had some water."

Da Tiantian handed Zhou Mo a glass of water and moved closer to him: "I just heard you talk about Parasite."

"Well, I have already contacted everyone I need to contact. Now I just have to wait for Lao Mouzi to finish producing the film and then participate in the awards."

Da Tiantian was startled, then her eyes suddenly widened.

"When did you contact that person? How come I don't know... No, who did you contact?"

"Gonzalez, he is the chairman of the jury at Cannes this year." Zhou Mo said casually, which would surprise many people.

Da Tiantian thought about it for a while and quickly found the identity of this person in her mind.

"Like Guillermo, one of the three great Mexicans?"

"Yeah, that's the guy."

"Doesn't that mean that this trio has successfully become the judges' chairperson again this year?"

Da Tiantian suddenly realized that she finally understood why Zhou Mo made a special effort to befriend Guillermo at the Venice Film Festival last year.

"These three brothers have been appearing quite frequently in international events recently, either winning awards or serving as judges, and every time they appear, there are at least two of them."

"That's what we call smart. Every year at the film festival, one of them is a judge and the other wins a big prize. The main point is that the money doesn't go to outsiders."

When Zhou Mo talked about these three Mexican heroes, his tone was full of admiration.

I'm not being sarcastic, I really admire you.

These three brothers have really helped and supported each other along the way and made progress step by step.

We have been together for decades, and finally in the last few years we started to win awards explosively, two awards a year, taking turns to win them, and it was a great pleasure.

Da Tiantian heard Zhou Mo's emotions and said with a hint of amusement: "Why, you also want to have a friend like this, you give him an award this year, and he gives you an award next year?"

Zhou Mo nodded very seriously: "If there is, I would definitely be happy to help. No matter how good you are fighting alone, you can't compare to having someone to help you."

"To come up with this kind of combination, luck and talent are both necessary. You can't force it."

Zhou Mo smiled slightly and said nonchalantly:
"Then just train them yourself. Otherwise, why do you think I have been providing scripts to Lao Mouzi, Kaizige, and even Wang Jing over and over again to support them over the years?

They won the award with the help of my script, and when they become judges in the future, they will help support me. These are things that must be done, and no one can find fault with them. "

Zhou Mo has always known that competition is not just about the level of the players. Referees, judges, even organizers and investors are all part of the competition.

Although the latter few rarely appeared on stage, their influence on the results of the competition was no less than that of the works themselves.

This has been the case since Zhou Mo first started competing for awards, and he has kept more than half of his experience behind the scenes.

He never thought there was anything wrong with these operations.

Perhaps there are those big guys who rely on their hard power to create stunning works at a young age, or who take one step at a time and eventually succeed in winning the gold medal, but Zhou Mo knows very well that he is not such a person.

Asking him to stop functioning would be as painful as a tiger hunting without using its teeth.

Da Tiantian was stunned and speechless, looking at Zhou Mo.

After a long while, she said thoughtfully, "You gave them the script, so you had this idea?"

"Otherwise, people like Kaizi and Lao Mouzi are people who consider realistic factors and have rich social connections. As long as they reach a position, such as a judge, they will naturally consider some things that they 'should' consider.

I have always believed that to promote the development of the industry, we should not only focus on launching good works, but also introduce more judges... When it comes to aesthetics, there is no universal indicator.

Every director comes from a different background and is exposed to different cultures. Some things are common, but some things can only be understood by people from the same cultural background.

I designed a plot taken from an anecdote in history books. It is very classic, but only Hua Guoren can understand it. Foreigners don’t understand it, so naturally they don’t understand the cleverness behind it.

At this time, a local judge suddenly stood up and said, "I understand, I understand, this plot is... Isn't that a benefit?"

At first, Zhou Mo was sitting on the sofa and explaining his ideas to Da Tiantian. Later on, he stood up and used his hands and feet as if he was doing a talk show.

Da Tiantian looked at Zhou Mo with a smile. Zhou Mo would only get so excited when he was talking about something exciting.

After Zhou Mo finished speaking, she said to him, "What you just said reminded me of someone."

"Who?"

"Coach Zhou."

Coach Zhou?
Zhou Mo searched over and over in his mind for a long time, but he didn't expect to know such a person.

"I know?"

"You probably don't know her, the coach of the diving team in the sports world. The sports world nicknamed her Queen Mother Zhou."

As soon as Zhou Mo heard the three words "Empress Dowager Zhou", he understood that she was a very legendary figure. Her achievements were dazzling both when she was a team member and when she was a coach.

Zhou Mo could also understand what Da Tiantian said. Coach Zhou did indeed let famous players join the referee team. A typical example was the world-famous "Guo Daxia".

However, Zhou Mo was curious why Da Tiantian mentioned Coach Zhou.

Logically speaking, these two people should not have much contact.

"How did you get to know Coach Zhou?"

"I don't know him either. I just saw you and Brother Chao mentioning something about the International Swimming Federation a while ago. They asked them to film a swimming case. I searched for other information and found that this Coach Zhou seems to be very powerful."

Zhou Mo nodded slightly, "I thought you were interested in diving."

Da Tiantian shook her head: "I'm not very interested in diving, even if it's useful."

"I'm very interested." Zhou Mo said.

Da Tiantian rolled her eyes at Zhou Mo.

"Are you interested? You obviously like to look at the scenery in the swimming pool, you are a slut~"

Zhou Mo returned to the sofa, leaned against Da Tiantian, and looked at her sincerely: "Actually, I don't really like going out to see the scenery. I have it at home."

Da Tiantian saw through Zhou Mo's little trick at a glance. She didn't respond at all and stood up and walked into the room.

"Then you can just stay at home and enjoy the scenery. I'm going to bed anyway. It's already half past three, and I have to get up and work tomorrow morning."

Having said that, the door was not locked after it was closed.

Zhou Mo's eyes flashed and he walked over with a smile.

(End of this chapter)