Chapter 657: Chapter 480: The International Path
Yao Yuanfeng’s mouth formed an "O".
"Cannes?" he asked.
"Cannes." The person in front of him nodded.
"Behind the Scenes?" he asked again.
"Behind the Scenes." The person in front of him nodded again.
Yao Yuanfeng hesitated for a long moment, and then thought for another long moment.
"Amazing." At last, these two words emerged from his mouth.
It had been said before that Yao Yuanfeng was a person with passionate generosity and leadership qualities, such people rarely have creative talent in the artistic field, but he had a passion for film and television, for this art form. Therefore, after he started from scratch with New Shield, he began to explore and develop into the realm of art films, signing talented but initially overlooked directors like Wen Bing and Hou Mengjie who worked on genre films and art films.
He, of course, had his own ambitions for global recognition. Which content creator doesn’t want to be more recognized and praised by people?
But the longer Yao Yuanfeng worked, the clearer he understood the difficulties involved.
Entertaining oneself is easy; wanting to entertains the world along with you is difficult.
Due to various reasons, Chinese-language films have been appearing less and less in the global film industry in recent years.
Otherwise, the fact that "Life" was shortlisted at Venice last year wouldn’t have attracted so much attention.
This time, another Chinese-language film has been shortlisted for Cannes, and it’s in the main competition, the only Chinese-language film.
And it’s starring Zhou Yun.
Yao Yuanfeng found it unbelievable.
"Behind the Scenes" was just a temporary film that Zhou Yun had accepted on short notice, created as it was being written and filmed.
Back then, he had even called Zhou Yun, advising her to abandon the idea, asking her not to take on this film.
At that time, Zhou Yun was very determined, even though many people didn’t understand.
Now, the results were in front of everyone, proving that Zhou Yun’s judgment was too accurate, surpassing all of them.
A film that started shooting on short notice and took only about twenty days to film had actually been shortlisted for Cannes.
Yao Yuanfeng was surprised on one hand and on the other, he quickly called Zhou Yun to offer his congratulations.
However, at this time Zhou Yun’s phone already showed it was in a call.
Yao Yuanfeng found it incredible.
Does Zhou Yun really have this kind of luck?
Again, a first-time film director, an unpromising project, once again representing Chinese-language films on the global stage.
Zhou Yun’s name swiftly climbed onto the hot search lists of various major social platforms.
Yao Yuanfeng looked at his social media feed; many people were discussing this, some people simply said in a few words: Zhou Yun’s vision is really godlike.
That day, almost everyone in the circle was discussing this matter.
To be shortlisted for the Big Three with one film could be luck, but to repeat it with a second film, could that still be luck?
Zhou Yun’s momentum once again utterly destroyed all the mockery and ridicule from her detractors—stemming from the mockery and ridicule she faced after the Huayu Award failure.
These two days were the most unhappy and frustrating days for Zhou Yun’s detractors.
First the Tensilk Award, and now Cannes.
Why is Zhou Yun’s luck so good?!
Zhou Yun’s detractors were so annoyed they could grit their teeth.
But as much as they hated in their hearts, they couldn’t possibly say that Zhou Yun had PR working for her at Cannes.
Even they knew to say so would be ridiculous.
Not to talk about the detractors, let’s talk about Zhou Yun herself.
After she received the call from Zhou Lan, her phone never stopped ringing, everyone was congratulating her, and those who were closer asked her to treat them to a meal.
Zhou Yun agreed to each one, smiling happily.
Finally, she got on the phone with Xue Qin.
"Congratulations, Director Xue," Zhou Yun said, "your first work has been selected for the main competition unit at Cannes Film Festival."
Xue Qin said, "It was bound to happen, I just didn’t expect it to come this quickly."
Arrogant again.
It was still the same overly confident Xue Qin that made one feel they were narcissistic.
"Sister Luo Qi?"
"She’s abroad," Xue Qin said, "Will you be able to join us in Cannes this May?"
"Yeah," Zhou Yun said, "I will try my best to arrange the time."
"Are you with Song Chi now?"
"He’s not here, he went to the company," Zhou Yun said.
"I thought he would be by your side at such a time."
"He went out early this morning, he had something to do," Zhou Yun said, "I didn’t even know the list was coming out today, it was my agent who called me, and then I knew about it, a great surprise."
"Congratulations, I wish you win the Movie Queen award this time."
"Me? No way." Zhou Yun instinctively shook her head.
Xue Qin said, "You performed really well in ’Behind the Scenes’."
"Then I borrow your lucky words," Zhou Yun said.
Although she said so, Zhou Yun didn’t have a strong confidence in her heart.
Compared to this, Zhou Lan was obviously more concerned about hers and Wang Jing’s red carpet looks now.
With the support of the current agent studio system, she hired one of the top stylists in the country to design looks for both Zhou Yun and Wang Jing.
When Zhou Yun met Wang Jing at the company, Wang Jing’s face was brimming with uncontrollable excitement and joy.
"Sister Xiao Yun!" Wang Jing hugged her as soon as they met, she had never before hugged Zhou Yun so directly and without a word.
Wang Jing got to act in "Behind the Scenes" entirely due to Zhou Yun’s recommendation.
Since there was a suitable role, Zhou Yun thought of Wang Jing.
If not because of this, when would Wang Jing have been able to walk on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival?
No one knew.
Perhaps if Wang Jing became famous later, she would attend this event at the invitation of sponsoring brands.
But when she could go there with a work in hand was an unknown.
By now, it had actually been just over a year since Wang Jing’s debut.
"This news came just in time," Zhou Lan said, "I was negotiating for Xiao Jing to get the role of the second female lead in Shen Yao’s new film, there were several others competing, but once this news came out, Shen Yao’s producer called me and gave the role to Xiao Jing."
"Wow, congratulations!" Zhou Yun clapped and laughed, "Xiao Jing, remember to treat us later."
Wang Jing was doubly joyous these days; she nodded with a smile and said, "Okay, I’ll arrange it right away."
Zhou Lan said, "Right now, Lu Zhongting and Huang Zicheng are both envious and jealous."
Wang Jing smiled proudly and said, "It’s good that I came to Sister Lan’s side early."
"I listened to you and specifically let Xiao Jing take English speaking lessons, at the time I didn’t really think that Xiao Jing would definitely be going to Cannes this time, but it’s always good to improve English speaking skills, didn’t expect it would come in handy so soon!" Zhou Lan said happily, "No way, I need to arrange English courses for those two guys, Lu Zhongting and Huang Zicheng, too. In the future, we all are going to take the international route!"