Time flashed, the end of June.

There is good news from Berlin, Zhang Yimou won the Golden Bear Award for Best Film at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival!

When this news was transmitted back to China, countless filmmakers were amazed, happy, excited, and incredulous......

As mentioned above, the three major European film festivals are currently the largest film exhibitions in the world, and the popularity of the Academy Awards does not seem to be weak, but the Oscars are just an award, and the three major European film festivals are a film exhibition.

Filmmakers from all over the world bring their films to the festival, including last month's Cannes and this Berlinale.

If the Oscars are a carnival of Hollywood films in the United States, then the three major film festivals in Europe are the carnival of films from all over the world.

The 38th Berlin International Film Festival, a total of 73 countries of filmmakers, film companies to come, whether to sign up for the competition, or want to buy the film rights at the film exhibition to bring back to their own countries to be screened, which has contributed to the Berlin Film Festival's popularity in the world.

Originally, when the list of nominees was announced, Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" was successfully selected, and everyone, including Zhang Yimou himself, only thought that the nomination was to accompany him, after all, the strength of the films shortlisted for the Golden Bear Award this year is too strong.

But when the award presenters took the stage and read out that the winner of the Golden Bear Award for Best Film this year was Zhang Yimou, a Chinese director who directed "Red Sorghum", the audience was in an uproar!

No one can believe that the winner of the Golden Bear Award is actually a little-known Chinese director!

Zhang Yimou, who was wearing a suit, strode onto the stage excitedly, and after receiving the trophy, his excited and excited laughing expression was captured by Li Yange, and it also became the cover photo that was later published in domestic newspapers.

"Thank you, thank you very much to the jury for awarding this award to me, I am extremely excited at the moment, in addition to the jury of the Berlin Film Festival, I also have to thank the crew for their perseverance, in the hot summer heat, tirelessly shoot over and over again. In particular, I would like to thank Mr. Li Yange, without him, I don't think I would have had the opportunity to register for the Berlin Film Festival, and at the same time, I would not have had the opportunity to win this award! ”

Zhang Yimou did not understand English, so after speaking in Chinese, although there was applause at the scene, it was all polite, except for a very small number of domestic filmmakers and reporters, almost no one understood what Zhang Yimou just said.

But just look at the excited expression, it is nothing more than thanking the jury and thanking some people, after all, the acceptance speech is generally this routine.

Here, after receiving the award and stepping down, Zhang Yimou returned to his seat with excitement, and Li Yange, who was sitting opposite him, said with a smile: "Congratulations to Director Zhang, you finally got what you wanted!" ”

"Thank you, thank you! Yan Ge, thank you really this time, if it weren't for you, I would have given up! ”

Zhang Yimou looked at Li Yange gratefully, he was really grateful to the other party, if it weren't for Li Yange's funding to give him the opportunity to bring a few main creators to Berlin, this award would probably pass by.

"This is also the excellent quality of the film you shoot, and the Berlin jury will award this award to you."

Looking at the Golden Bear Award in the other party's hand, Li Yange waved his hand, although Zhang Yimou barely had part of his own credit for winning the award this time, but according to the original history, Zhang Yimou thought that even if he didn't have his own sponsorship, I am afraid that after returning to China, he would try his best to get funds to go to Berlin again.

can only say that Li Yange is just right.

But Zhang Yimou didn't think so, when he was in Cannes, he was about to despair, he was really about to despair.

The West Film Studio gave 50,000 yuan for going abroad, and Zhang Yimou paid 50,000 yuan himself, how difficult it was for him to get together the 50,000 yuan was unknown to outsiders.

Don't look at Zhang Yimou as a director, but the current directors are all paid dead salaries, and at most when shooting films, they will give a little extra subsidy, so the salary per month is not more than 1,000 yuan at most, which is still more.

Zhang Yimou has been working in the crew for so many years, he has acted as a leading actor, and won the best actor at the Tokyo Film Festival, but in fact, he has not made any money over the years, and his total net worth is estimated to be a few thousand yuan.

was able to collect 50,000 yuan, and Zhang Yimou borrowed it from many friends.

Under such pressure, Cannes did not win the award, which made Zhang Yimou feel sorry for Western Film Studio and sorry for his friends.

So when Li Yange took the initiative to say that he would fund Zhang Yimou to come to Berlin, why was he so excited, and when he won the award, he thanked Li Yange a lot, because without Li Yange, he Zhang Yimou might really not have the courage to find someone to borrow money and come to Berlin to bet on whether he could win a prize!

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When Zhang Yimou and others participated in the celebration banquet held for him by Li Yange in Berlin, the domestic side was also very lively, and major newspapers and television reported that Zhang Yimou won the "Best Golden Bear Award at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival!" ”

Last month, Chen Kaige only won a dispensable "Education Contribution Award", and was touted by newspapers as the first of the fifth generation of new directors after the fourth generation of directors.

Now Zhang Yimou has won the "Golden Bear Award", the highest award at the Berlin Film Festival, which is like a person engaged in literature and scientific research who won the Nobel Prize, and a person who is engaged in mathematics won the Fields Medal.

The Golden Bear Award won by Zhang Yimou is, at a certain level, not much worse than the Nobel Prize, at most it is a little worse in gold content.

Of course, the so-called gold content is not a problem of the award itself, the main thing is that there are too many awards for films, not to mention anything else, there are three major film festival awards in Europe alone, the Nobel Prize is a scientific research and literature award, which is unique in the world, and in the perception of the general public, the Nobel Prize is a little higher than the Berlin Golden Bear Award.

Regardless of the gold content of the award, Zhang Yimou has always been the first Chinese director to win the top award at the world's three major international film festivals.

The next day's news broadcast was also on the international news, broadcasting the news that China's outstanding director Zhang Yimou won the highest Golden Bear Award at the 32nd Berlin International Film Festival.

In order to let the public have a better intuitive understanding of the Golden Bear Award, the host briefly told the history of the Berlin Golden Bear Award, which also made many people who watched the news understand that the gold content of the Golden Bear Award was so high!

So when there was a big report in China, the Ministry of Culture sent someone to contact Zhang Yimou who was far away in Berlin overnight, in addition to congratulating him, but also asking Zhang Yimou to return to China with the trophy as soon as possible.

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