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Chapter 108: Capturing the Lion in Venice

"A Taste of Cherry."

"I go……"

When Huang Ze heard the English title of "Taste of Cherry", he felt his heart skip a beat.

Sitting there in a daze.

Did I hear that right?

The Golden Lion Award, did I actually win it?
This is the first of the three highest awards in the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong.

From now on, I will leave my name in the history of Chinese-language films.

Is it really me?

Huang Ze looked at the reactions of others calmly, and saw that many filmmakers were looking over here. Huang Ze confirmed it and stood up.

At this time, the other people in the group also reacted, stood up in unison, and applauded with smiles on their faces.

"Congratulations, Director Huang!"

"Old Huang, what did I say? There must be a prize. You have to cover my mouth. Otherwise, I would have predicted it correctly."

"How do you know that if I don't cover your mouth, this golden lion will still be mine? You might just talk me into submission." Huang Ze and Gu Changwei replied as they hugged each other to celebrate.

"I..." Gu Changwei wanted to retort, but stopped himself. He let go and said, "Since today is a happy day, I won't say anything to you. Let you be happy."

"I am in the right anyway." After hugging everyone sitting nearby to make sure everyone was treated equally, Huang Ze left his seat.

He straightened his clothes, held his head high, and walked onto the stage with big strides.

"Congratulations, Huang, the youngest winner of the Golden Lion Award." The guest handed over the trophy with both hands.

Huang Ze originally wanted to receive the award with one hand, but after seeing the other party's posture, he changed to using both hands.

You can't just accept the award with one hand, turn your face to the side, and not look at the presenter, right?

He is a guest, not a waiter.

I'm not Iron Man.

"Thank you." Huang Ze nodded with a smile, holding the trophy, facing everyone, and raising the trophy with a beaming face.

After showing it, he put it back in front of his chest and started studying it himself.

This is a golden lion with wings on its back.

And the mane, a lion.

Hmm, not bad. It would be even better if it was pure gold, but unfortunately it isn’t.

He took a deep breath and walked to the microphone.

In fact, Huang Zeying’s English is very good, but considering that this is the first Golden Lion Award in China and the first of the three major awards in China, it is of great significance. In order to encourage domestic filmmakers, he simply changed his acceptance speech into Chinese.

"I never thought I would get this trophy, I feel really honored."

"I am grateful to my motherland for the five years of primary school, junior high school, high school and university. Without receiving a complete education and studying at my alma mater, Beijing Film Academy, it would be difficult for me to become who I am today."

"Also, thank you to the jury for awarding me this award. I am very grateful."

After thanking the people who were absolutely indispensable as per convention, Huang Ze began to say what he wanted to say.

"This work doesn't just belong to me. It is inseparable from the contributions of everyone."

"For this role, Jiao Huo didn't get a good night's sleep or a proper meal for three months. He was over 50 years old and lost more than 20 kilograms just to play the role of the protagonist who wanted to die."

"Assistant director Zhang Jianya, he was responsible for almost all the preparatory work in the early stages."

"There are also photographers Zhang Yimou and Gu Changwei. They are indispensable to taking such beautiful shots."

"I also want to thank the art director..." Huang Ze won the highest award, so it didn't matter if his acceptance speech was a little long. So Huang Ze relied on his good memory and mentioned the name of every staff member and actor except for the extras who didn't have any lines.

After talking for several minutes and saying all these names, Huang Ze felt that it was about enough and raised the trophy.

"I will serve as a bridge between Chinese-language films and the Venice Film Festival, and bring more Chinese-language films to Venice."

"This is the first Golden Lion Award for our Chinese-language film, but I believe it will not be the last. There will definitely be other Chinese-language filmmakers standing on this podium in the future. I'm waiting for you."

With a slight nod, Huang Ze walked off the stage with the trophy.

As soon as he walked back to his seat, Huang Ze's trophy was taken away by Gu Changwei for inspection. "Wow, wow, it's really nice. I wonder when I can get one too."

"First of all, you have to be a director." Huang Ze sighed helplessly.

"If you can't get a director position at Xi'an Film Studio, you can come and follow me."

"If you hang out with me, how can I not invest in your movie?"

"You're my elder brother now? It's different after winning the Golden Lion." Gu Changwei glared at Huang Ze, "I'm much older than you, okay?"

"It doesn't matter. From now on, we can talk about our own things. You can call me brother and I will call you Lao Gu."

"Lao Gu, come hang out with me and I'll invest in your movie."

"I don't want to be so far away from home, and I'm not sure I can be a director. Give me a few more years and I'll learn." Gu Changwei was still a little unconfident and shook his head to refuse.

When he shook his head, he saw Zhang Yimou smiling brightly, and couldn't help but complain, "What are you laughing at? You're not the director."

"If you have the ability, win one of the three major awards before you laugh." After saying that, he handed the Golden Lion trophy to Zhang Yimou and asked him to go and watch.

The award ceremony ended quickly, and the news that Huang Ze won the Golden Lion Award and became the youngest Golden Lion Award winner quickly spread around the world.

It is still around three o'clock in the morning in the country, but some people have not yet fallen asleep.

Huang Ze's record of winning awards in the previous two times made them unable to sleep before knowing the final result.

These people are from China Film Group and Shanghai Film Studio.

The first news in China was sent back by reporters sent by CCTV.

Then I started calling those people who had informed me in advance and asked them to be notified as soon as there was any news.

"what?"

"Is the news correct?"

"That's great!" At the Shanghai Film Studio, Xu Shangchu, who had been waiting in front of the phone, felt his ears buzzing. After hanging up the phone, he still couldn't believe it.

"Wow, he actually won the Golden Lion, the first of the top three in the country. This kid is really good, he always comes up with something new for me!"

"What a shame." A trace of regret appeared in Xu Shangchu's eyes, and then he shook his head, "It's nothing to regret, the sea is wide and the fish can leap as far as they want."

"If Huang Ze hadn't cooperated with me to produce Hong Kong dollars this time, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to convince others to agree to come up with a target to shoot this film."

"Will this golden lion still exist?" Xu Shangchu asked himself in his heart.

"Hey, it's such a happy day, don't think about these things."

In the early morning of the next day, the news that Huang Ze won the Golden Lion Award in Venice had spread throughout the entire domestic film system.

The first thing I do when I get to work is, “Hey, did you hear about this?”

"what's up?"

"Let me tell you, it's awesome! Huang Ze won the Golden Lion, one of the highest film awards in the world. It's the first in our country, including Hong Kong and Taiwan!"

"I've heard about it, too. My third cousin's second uncle worked at the Shanghai Film Studio. He said that Huang Ze had been watching movies at the studio since he was three years old. He could play movies at the age of seven and knew about long-shot montage."

(End of this chapter)