Huayu: Director started with art films

8 month 7 number.

The Locarno Film Festival officially opens.

In addition to the shortlisted films, filmmakers from all over the world also brought their own films to the exhibition.

However, most of these filmmakers are unknown directors who come to the film festival to try their luck, and there are also many new directors.

Who can blame the poor development of the Locarno Film Festival in recent years? No well-known directors will come. Lee Yi-su's appearance can be said to be a blow.

Wang Zhiwen and director Huang Lijia, who came to the film festival for the first time, were curious about everything about the festival and focused almost all of their attention on the film screenings.

After Li Yishu reached an agreement with the organizer that today's Golden Leopard Award would be 100% his, he handed over the film screening to the person in charge of the group managing the film festival.

In addition to coming in person on the first day after the opening, Li Yishu then brought Yu Feihong, Jiang Qinqin and others to start looking for films suitable for distribution in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia at the film festival.

Li Yishu, who had been busy for half a year, took this opportunity to have a good rest and took the two of them to travel around this Swiss town.

During this period, Li Yishu also accepted interviews from several foreign journalists and met with Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Xiaobo.

This reporter Zhang Xiaobo is an old acquaintance of mine. He had contact with Li Yishu when she won the Palme d'Or in Cannes. He also led the team to interview her at subsequent film festivals.

On the north shore of Lake Maggiore in Locarno, Li Yishu was sitting under a parasol, chatting with Zhang Xiaobo.

Lake Maggiore is a large lake that spans Italy and Switzerland. Its northern end extends into Switzerland, about 90 kilometers from Milan.

Li Yishu has already thought about it. After attending the Locarno Film Festival, she will take a boat directly to Milan, where she will take the crew to play for a few days. After that, she will attend the Venice International Film Festival on August 8 with the "Fireworks" crew.

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Zhang Xiaobo began to ask questions: "Director Li, what made you choose to attend the Locarno Film Festival?"

"I came to participate if I wanted to."

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Reporter Zhang, I understand what you mean. You want to ask me why I came to participate in a little-known film festival like Locarno?"

Zhang Xiaobo smiled and said nothing, but his expression confirmed Li Yishu's question.

In fact, this question is not only what Zhang Xiaobo wants to know, but also not what many domestic filmmakers understand.

In their opinion, with Li Yishu's current status, he does not need to participate in these unknown film festivals. It would be fine if he can win an award, but if he cannot, wouldn't it ruin the reputation he has worked so hard to build?
"I know that the Locarno Film Festival is not very well-known in Europe, China and Asia. Many people, including those working in the film industry, know very little about this film festival, and many have never even heard of its name. However, the Locarno Film Festival has a long history. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was known as one of the four major film festivals in Europe..."

Li Yishu kept talking and saying mostly nice things. She couldn't just say directly that her original purpose of coming to this film festival was just to support Yu Feihong to become the best actress, right?
Before coming here, Zhang Xiaobo had also researched the Locarno Film Festival. He knew that this now unknown film festival had once been glorious. So when he heard Li Yishu say this, he agreed with her statement.

"Then Director Li, do you think you can win the award this time?"

"I definitely hope to win an award. I believe every director who comes to the film festival hopes to gain something from it, but whether or not you can win an award depends on the choice of the film festival judges."

"That……"

The two had a pleasant chat while asking and answering questions.

From the Locarno Film Festival to the Venice Film Festival soon, and in recent years, domestic filmmakers have repeatedly achieved success at European film festivals.

As time passed, the interview came to an end. Zhang Xiaobo was ready to ask the last question. He said, "Director Li, do you think that domestic film festivals, such as the Shanghai Film Festival, will be able to compete with the three major European film festivals in the future?"

"Of course it can be compared!" Li Yishu nodded with a smile and said, "I think it's more than just comparable. In the future, the Shanghai Film Festival will definitely have the hope of surpassing the three major European film festivals."

"Oh why?"

Zhang Xiaobo became interested. Today, the three major European film festivals are not only well-known in China, but also well-known all over the world. Every year, a large number of filmmakers participate in the competition and exhibitions, including some well-known directors and actors.

“Because of the market!”

"market?"

"Yes."

Li Yishu nodded: "The Chinese film market has the greatest potential in the world. You cannot deny that we have a huge audience in our country. Even if many of these people have never been to a movie theater in their lives, with the rapid economic development, people will have more and more money in their hands in the future. Going to the cinema to watch a movie will become a fun thing for them to relax and entertain..."

He has experienced the most glorious decade for domestic commercial films, 2010-2020. These ten years were the fastest and most rapid development of domestic films, with excellent works of various themes emerging in endlessly.

There are traditional martial arts "The Blade of the Assassin", science fiction masterpiece "The Wandering Earth", military war "Wolf Warrior 2", comedy movie "Lost in Thailand"...

At that time, thanks to the investment of big Internet companies, movie tickets were as cheap as 9.9 yuan each, and many people were happy to walk into the cinema for the price of a cup of milk tea.

It was also from that time that the number of moviegoers in mainland China exceeded that in North America in 2015, becoming the number one in the world.

It is no longer surprising for a movie to earn billions at the box office.

Zhang Xiaobo asked: "At the end of the interview, does Director Li have anything to say to domestic filmmakers?"

"There's nothing much to say. Although I have some achievements, they are not good enough to be a teacher."

Li Yishu declined with a smile. He wanted to promote the development of commercial films, but he became famous by making art films. If he promoted commercial films, he would easily be criticized by some old stubborn people.

"Ok."

Zhang Xiaobo didn't say anything else, only saying that he would interview more foreign filmmakers at the Locarno Film Festival in the next few days and hoped that Li Yishu could help introduce them.

Li Yishu readily agreed. Although he had been playing these days, he had met many filmmakers. Although few of them became famous, most of them still had a deep impression of him.

Happy times are always short. Time passed quickly and it was August 8th in the blink of an eye.

The closing ceremony of the Locarno Film Festival was held as scheduled.

Unlike the star-studded Cannes Film Festival and other film festivals, the red carpet at the Locarno Film Festival can only be described as “dismal”.

Many tourists and filmmakers came, but there were almost no well-known actors and stars. The only famous actress was French actress Isabelle Adjani, who was one of the judges of this year's Locarno Film Festival.

On the red carpet, Isabelle Adjani deliberately stopped and waited for Lee Yi-su to come over after seeing her leading the team. Then she walked forward and said, "Hello, Lee!"

"Hello Ms. Adjani."

Lee Yi-su has a deep impression of this French Rose, and the one she remembers most vividly is probably the movie "Possessed", in which the image of a crazy beauty is unforgettable.

Isabelle Adjani smiled and said, "Finally I meet you. I really like the movie The Reader you starred in. You acted very well in it."

"It's just that the roles fit." Li Yishu waved her hand modestly: "Ms. Ajani's acting skills are first-rate. You are my idol. I really like the movie you starred in, "Possessed", and last year's "Queen Margot". They are both very impressive."

Hearing this, Ajani smiled and said, "Sophie has always praised you for being a gentleman. Now it seems to be true."

Hearing this, Li Yishu smiled without saying anything, then pulled Yu Feihong beside her and introduced him to the other party.

"Yu, you performed very well in the movie. I really like your scene in the snow. It left a deep impression on me."

As a judge, Anjelica Hsu had naturally seen Yu Feihong's performance in "Black Coal, Thin Ice" and gave a positive response to her acting skills.

Yu Feihong said excitedly: "Thank you, Ms. Ajani, I am your fan, I like your movies very much, especially "Quartet"..."

As a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy's acting class and now a teacher of that class, she has naturally seen many foreign films, including many starring Isabelle Adjani.

Among the actresses known as the Rose of France, Isabelle Adjani is probably the one with the best acting skills.

She entered the showbiz industry in 1970 and was nominated for the Best Actress at the 1975th Academy Awards in 48 for her role in a foreign language film. In 1981, she won the Best Actress Award at the 34th Film Festival for her role in "Quartet".

In her 25-year acting career, Anjani has won more than a dozen Best Actress awards, including international awards such as the Cannes Film Festival.

An actress who truly has both beauty and acting skills.

Yu Feihong was naturally happy to receive her praise, especially since the other party was also one of the jury of this year's Locarno Film Festival.

A few people chatted for a while on the red carpet and took photos with the reporters. Then they did not stay there any longer, but walked into the Film Palace one after another.

There are a total of 21 films shortlisted for the Locarno International Film Festival this year, including three Japanese films and only two Chinese films.

One is "Black Coal, Thin Ice" directed by Lee Yi-su, and the other is "Tropical Fish" directed by Taiwan director Chen Yuxun.

This is Chen Yuxun's first film that he wrote and directed. Before that, he had been working in a TV station. Later, the Formosa News Bureau launched a subsidy program for excellent scripts and national films, or simply put, a fund for new directors.

With the script of "Tropical Fish", Chen Yuxun successfully won sponsorship from this new director fund.

The most famous film of this director in the future was "The Village of Forgetting" starring Shu Qi.

However, Li Yishu didn't have much impression of him. During the film festival, considering that both of them were Chinese, she went to attend the premiere of the other's movie.

At 7 o'clock in the evening.

As the guests and filmmakers arrived one after another.

The closing ceremony of the 48th Locarno International Film Festival officially kicked off.

The first to appear on stage were two very famous local hosts in Switzerland. They started with German, one of the official languages, and then switched to English.

Because there are many overseas filmmakers at the scene, most of them know English, and even if they don’t, they will bring translators.

There are only 8 major awards at the Locarno International Film Festival.

Golden Leopard Award, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Special Jury Award (Silver Leopard Award), Honorary Golden Leopard Award, Best Debut Film.

Similar to other European film festivals, the Locarno Film Festival also has the Catholic Humanitarian Award.

This seems to be a unified award at European film festivals. To put it simply, any film that falls within the Catholic category can win the award. It's a consolation prize.

Awards always come from small to big.

The first recipient of the Catholic Humanitarian Award was French female director Françoise Etchegaray, who won the award for "Seven Times of Waiting".

After that came the Best Debut Award and the Honorary Golden Leopard Award.

After the first few small awards were announced, it was the turn of the Best Actress Award.

Yu Feihong couldn't help but nervously hold Li Yishu's hand tightly.

Jiang Qinqin, who was sitting to the right of Li Yishu, learned that the Best Actress Award was about to be presented, and immediately cheered her up, "Sister Feihong, I believe you will definitely win the award."

"I hope so." Yu Feihong smiled, but he was still extremely nervous.

After the host called out the award presenters, a Swiss actress and a British director walked onto the stage.

The two first talked about the topic of Best Actress, and then pointed out several actresses who participated in the election. The Swiss actress then picked up the letter:

"The winner of the Best Actress Award is... Congratulations to Yu from China for winning the Best Actress Award at the 48th Locarno International Film Festival for her performance in Black Coal, Thin Ice!"

There was thunderous applause.

"Sister Feihong! Did you win the award?" Jiang Qinqin's English was very poor, but she understood the word China.

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Yes, your sister Feihong won the award!"

Yu Feihong's face was filled with excitement at this time, and the main creators of the crew around him were also cheering. It was a good start!

Yu Feihong won the award, which shows that their trip was worthwhile.

The only pity is Wang Zhiwen, as he was also nominated for Best Actor. Normally, it is rare for the male and female protagonists to win the award at the same time.

“I won a prize!”

Yu Feihong looked at Li Yishu and could no longer contain his excitement. He stood up, hugged Li Yishu's head with both hands, and kissed her mouth directly.

Many people from foreign film crews nearby saw this scene and cheered, some even whistled.

The two guests on the stage looked at each other when they saw this scene. The actress smiled and said, "It seems that our Yu is very excited. He is the three-award winning director Li. To be honest, I also want to kiss him."

There was a lot of laughter at the scene.

Only Jiang Qinqin stood there in a daze.

Sister Feihong, how could Sister Feihong kiss Brother Yishu!

She, how could she kiss my boyfriend!
At this moment, Jiang Qinqin felt very aggrieved. (End of this chapter)