Wang Dalun set off from home on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year and arrived in the capital on the evening of the eighth day of the Lunar New Year. packed up and got together with Lao Jia, Gu Zheng, and representatives of Hong Kong investors who arrived in Beijing ahead of schedule. On 5 February, a group of five people boarded a flight to Berlin, Germany.

The representative of the Hong Kong investor is surnamed Lee, and his English name is Jacob, but the English pronunciation can easily be pronounced as Jackber by some earthen cannons. Wang Dalun and Yu Liwei got along very well during filming, and they deliberately sat together to catch up after a long absence.

Wang Dalun has already had the experience of going abroad to participate in film festivals twice, once for more than 30 hours and once for 15 hours, and this time flying to Berlin for 11 hours is the most relaxed.

As one of the three major film festivals in Europe, the Berlinale certainly surpasses Argentina's Matabrata International Film Festival, but it seems to be a little worse than the crowded Cannes Film Festival. Maybe the cold weather is also a factor, because Wang Dalun felt that Berlin was colder than the capital when he got off the plane, and it was still that kind of cold.

The hotel Jacob booked was in average condition, but it was very heated and comfortable. As film producers, Jacob, Lao Jia and Yu Liwei were busy attending various exhibitions and promoting films as soon as they arrived in Berlin.

Wang Dalun and Gu Zheng have nothing to do, it is said that Gu Zheng is from the magic capital, and when he is in China, he always has a tone of looking at everyone as a countryman, and he is very annoying. But as soon as you go abroad, you are a turtle. This is exactly the same as when Wang Dalun went to Argentina for the first time to participate in the Matabrata International Film Festival, the language barrier is different, and he is completely confused.

Wang Dalun, who speaks very fluent English, took this turtle to start a tour and shopping trip in Berlin.

Berlin and the tourist city of Cannes are completely two concept cities, this is a city with a lot of heritage and historical vicissitudes, the ruins of the Berlin Wall that are a product of the Cold War are a must-go, and the Reichstag where the Soviet army planted the red flag in "Capture Berlin".

The beginning of February coincided with the "WSV" in Germany, also known as the Winter Sale. Supermarkets, department stores, almost all stores are on sale.

In addition to tanks, artillery, and automobiles, kitchen supplies such as knives and spatulas were counted, and the wanton bombardment of direct sales by television in later generations made Wang Dalun remember the name of Zwilling people. As a cooking enthusiast, it's natural to be interested in this kind of thing. But when I went to the supermarket, even if I discounted those things, they were not cheap, and they cost 100 or even hundreds of marks at every turn, which was equivalent to hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

However, cosmetics are quite cheap, similar to hand cream, day cream, night cream, eye cream or something only a few marks, and the suit is only about ten or twenty marks, which is equivalent to dozens of yuan. I just bought it to give it away.

Anyway, I sent Liu Ling, I can't leave Zhao Wei behind, and the little girl downstairs, Lao Xu is so black, I don't know if this kind of thing can make her paint white. Everyone else has given it, and we can't forget the old lady who loves to dress up. The same has to be mailed, and Zhang Lu and Sun Li are not bad for these two copies.

Gu Zheng saw that Wang Dalun bought seven or eight copies of cosmetics, and couldn't help but be surprised: "You are a single, are you going to return to China to sell or what?"

Wang Dalun can tell him that he is a friend of women, but he can only vaguely answer that he brought it for others.

But there is one thing he must not leave behind, Zhang Yuan's wife Teacher Ning is about to give birth this month, Zhang Yuan is absolutely interesting to him, of course he can't forget this feeling, and bought a full box of infant milk powder. If you don't want anything else, you want to be safe.

A few days passed quickly, and the situation was not optimistic for Lao Jia and Jacob, who participated in several exhibitions, but few people cared about movies. At present, we can only hope that we can be shortlisted for the film festival, and the main competition unit of the Golden Bear Award does not dare to hope for it, but other competition units, even if they are non-competition screening units, as long as they can be shortlisted, the film will not worry about selling. You must know that "Xiao Wu" has only invested a total of 200,000 yuan, even if you add the expenses of participating in the film festival this time, as long as you can sell two or three copies, it will be enough to pay off.

On February 11, the festival opened. Unfortunately, it rained in Berlin on this day, making the already gray city even colder. The red carpet of the opening ceremony could only end hastily, and Wang Dalun's newly customized suit had no chance to appear on the red carpet.

The opening film was "The Boxer" directed by Jim Sheridan, and the reason given by the organizers was that Sheridan had won the Golden Bear Award in '94 for "In the Name of the Father", as a tribute to Sheridan. At the same time, we encourage more Golden Bear winners to return to Berlin and make good films to give back to the German audience.

But Yu Liwei told Wang Dalun that it is unlikely that the opening film will win the award. But the movie is quite good, and the actor Daniel Day Lewis made a deep impression on him. But the next day, the media's comments on "The Boxer" were very mediocre, and they also ridiculed director Sheridan as if he had run out of talent.

And that night, Lao Jia and Jacob brought an exciting news that "Xiao Wu" was shortlisted, although it was not shortlisted for the main competition unit, but it was shortlisted for the forum unit, which is also a competition unit.

Jacob was so excited that he invited everyone to a bar for a German beer. Speaking of the selection of "Xiao Wu", it is quite thrilling, when Lao Jia sent the videotape to Berlin, it was past the deadline for receiving the film, but fortunately, the wife of Gregor, the chairman of the forum unit, watched the movie in the office with her colleagues after work, and they liked it very much, and the organizing committee immediately wanted to give "Xiao Wu" a chance anyway. In this way, "Xiao Wu" was able to be shortlisted for the forum unit smoothly.

It is said that the Berlin Film Festival has always been quite partial to Chinese-language films, and Director Zhang's famous work "Red Sorghum" won the Golden Bear here; Zhang Yanyu won the actress crown with "Ruan Lingyu", becoming the first Chinese best actor in the three major European film festivals, and then Li Yu won the Golden Bear twice. As for the other Silver Bear Awards, Chinese-language films have also won several awards.

Among the 15 feature films shortlisted for the main competition unit of this film festival, there are three Chinese-language films, namely Guan Jinpeng's "The Happier the More Depraved", Cheng Chong's "Heavenly Bath" and another Taiwanese film Lin Zhengsheng's "Wandering".

Even so, the originally unknown "Xiao Wu" still attracted the attention of the media, after all, people squeezed out Xu Yuhua's "Half Life", and Zheng'er Bajing was shortlisted for the forum unit.

The next ten days are free to screen. Wang Dalun's original plan was quite good, watch the movie and then go around. As a result, Jacob carried the copy with Yu Liwei to fool the foreigner, and Lao Jia could only drag him to promote the movie, who told him to be good at English, to be a translator.

However, he still took the time to watch a few movies in his busy time, although he had watched the video in his previous life, he had no impression of it, and revisiting the movie made him like Qiu Shuzhen again;

Matt Dimon in the "Spy" series was once very impressive, but in "Soul Catcher" he played a different version of himself. The funniest is "Murder of Green Toes", and Julian Moore is still beautiful at this time.

In fact, what he wanted to watch was the British movie "Unexpected Passion", for no other reason, it was for the heroine Rachel Weisz. I think that when I watched "Soldiers in the City", Rachel Weisz and Jude Law huddled on the Chase bunk full of sleeping Soviet soldiers and had sex, revealing their half-pulled snow-white buttocks, which made him high at that time.

It's a pity that I couldn't squeeze in time for the first two days, and on the last day, that is, February 18, "Xiao Wu" premiered.

Although only half of the audience was seated in the 200-seat theater, and about a dozen of them were film dealers from Jacobra, the presence of Mr. and Mrs. Gregor, the chairman of the forum unit, still caused quite a stir.

Lao Jia was respectful to the Gregor couple, if it wasn't for the strong recommendation of these two people, "Xiao Wu" may never have a bright day.

However, the premiere of "Xiao Wu" still ended in a bleak situation, from the first 180 audiences, to the end of the screening, there were only two or three kittens, and even a dozen studios were almost gone.

However, Mr. Gregor gave Lao Jia a high evaluation, whether this was a kind word from others or not, or it made Lao Jia very excited, and he often mentioned this matter afterwards, saying that he never thought that he was a foreigner who knew him best.

The hard work paid off, and with Jacob's unremitting efforts, he finally sold two copies, not only recovering all the investment but also making a slight surplus. Now everyone relaxed, for Jacob it was a complete task, and for Lao Jia, he not only made the movie he wanted to make, but also gave an explanation to the investor. In the remaining days, everyone drinks beer and watches movies, so they don't care, as for whether they can win the award, no one cares too much, even Lao Jia said that he can't ask too much.

Finally, on the day of the closing ceremony, God helped, and it was finally a good day. Although it was cold, those actresses still deserved to be exposed, as if they were born not afraid of the cold.

Compared with those turtles, Wang Dalun was still dressed in costumes, and Gu Zheng was quite jealous. But this time is different from the last time in Cannes, the first time it may feel very novel, but the second time it is clear that I am not even qualified for the award, and I always feel a little regretful.

Although the Berlinale is in a sense not as good as Cannes, it does not affect the big names, such as Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Robin Williams, Samuel L. Jackson, the Coen Brothers, Quentin Tarantino and many more.

In contrast, the crew of "Xiao Wu" seems very low, and this time Wang Dalun did not steal the spotlight on the red carpet, and the five people hurried by.

The closing ceremony of foreigners is basically the same, no nonsense, it is the appearance of the jury, and this year's Chinese judge Leslie Cheung is naturally among them. Wang Dalun regrets that he couldn't meet with his brother this time to catch up on the old days.

After a few words on behalf of the jury, Ben Kingsley, the chairman of the jury, officially began the award.

In addition to the Golden Bear and various Silver Bear Awards, there are also Blue Angel Awards, Don Quixote Awards, Caligari Awards, and readers' jury awards of various newspapers, etc., the most bizarre is a teddy bear award, and when I asked, I knew that it was originally an award for same-sex and romantic films.

Wang Dalun secretly felt sorry for "East Palace and West Palace" in his heart, if only he had signed up for the Berlin Film Festival, maybe he would have won this teddy bear award, and he would not be empty-handed like he was in Cannes.

At the beginning, there were small awards, and as Yu Liwei predicted before, the opening film "The Boxer" won a marginal prize called the Berliner Morning Post Readers' Jury Award.

It didn't take long for the host on the stage to read: "The next is the latest award of the Berlin Film Festival - the Youth Forum Award, which is named after the German director Wolfgang Stotter......"

When Yu Liwei heard this, he hurriedly reminded: "It's time for the forum unit award." ”

When everyone heard this, they quickly held their breath and stared intently at the stage. Although everyone said before that it doesn't matter if they win the award or not, as a film shortlisted for the forum unit, this is the most likely award for "Xiao Wu" after all.

Lao Jia, who participated in such a grand film festival for the first time, even his nervous body was trembling slightly, and Wang Dalun, who was sitting next to him, felt it, pushed him, and said softly in Fenyang dialect: "You can't ask for too much." ”

This in itself is Lao Jia's original words, and when he heard it, he couldn't help but laugh and said, "You kid just do a lot of weirdwork." ”

However, Wang Dalun's interruption, Lao Jia's nervous feelings were relieved all of a sudden, and the originally tense body of the goods relaxed, leaning on the back of the chair, and the expression on his face was somewhat light.

“…… Well, now let's see who won this first prize ......"

The guy on the stage nagged for a long time, and finally revealed the answer.

“Pickpocket！”

Although the translation of Xiao Wu's title as a thief made Wang Dalun very embarrassed, this did not prevent him from not understanding, and he suddenly jumped up from the chair, and by the way, he also dragged Lao Jia, who was an old god, up.

"It's us, we've won the award, the Forum Award!"

"Wow, congratulations. Yu Liwei gave Lao Jia a big hug.

Jacob and Gu Zheng also stood up and applauded vigorously, Jacob's eyes were even more starry, you must know that this award and not winning the award are completely two concepts, why "East Palace and West Palace" was sold in more than a dozen countries at the beginning, and it was not because it won three awards at the Matabrata International Film Festival in Argentina. But winning an award at the Berlin Film Festival and winning an award at the Matabrata International Film Festival are completely different concepts, which means that more people will pay attention. Is that copy still sold?

Although Lao Jia relaxed a lot just now, but he really won the award, he couldn't help but moisten his eyes, and he was a little at a loss for a while, under the urging of everyone, he wiped the corners of his eyes and walked quickly to the stage.

Lao Jia's personality can be said to be introverted if it sounds good, and it is boring if it doesn't sound good. Although he has been claiming before: "You can't ask too much." But looking at him stumbling on stage and saying his acceptance speech in English, he didn't need to ask Ya in fact, he had long hoped to win the award, and even the acceptance speech was prepared in advance.

Chinese often say that good things come in pairs, maybe the Berlin Film Festival is really a blessed place for Chinese-language films, just announced that the Hong Kong film "The Happier the More Depraved" won the Alfred Award, that is, after the Dare to Fight Award, followed by "Xiao Wu" again won the Asian Film Promotion Agency Award at this film festival.

Finally, several heavyweight awards were announced, and when it was announced that "Wagging Tail Dog", starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, won the Grand Jury Prize, everyone could almost guess that the winner of the Golden Bear at this year's film festival must be the previously acclaimed French film "Grand Central Station".

Brazilian Fernande Montenago won the actress for her performance in Grand Central Station, and Samuel L. Jackson won Best Actor for Dangerous Liaisons.

As for the Golden Bear for Best Picture, it naturally belongs to the long-awaited "Grand Central Station".

Among the three Chinese-language films shortlisted for the main competition unit, Cheng Chong's "Heavenly Bath", which was previously touted by the media, unexpectedly did not receive any results, and the Taiwanese movie "Wandering" also accompanied the race. However, Kwan Jinpeng's "The Happier the More Depraved" not only won the Alfred Award, but also won the Best Feature Film Award with two other films, becoming the biggest winner among the shortlisted Chinese films.

Of course, "Xiao Wu" is not inferior, it was only shortlisted for the forum unit, but it won two awards in one fell swoop: the forum award and the Asian Film Promotion Organization Award.