Chapter 213 Academy Awards and Controversy
Liu Zhou sat in the middle of the third row, with the best view.

Sitting around him are Andy Lau, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Aaron Kwok, Leung Chiu Wai, Master Chow, Zhang Ziyi, Jay Chou, Li Bingbing and others, he can be said to be the moon surrounded by stars.

The live camera would scan over every once in a while, and occasionally stay on Liu Zhou for a few seconds.

Liu and Zhou couldn't help but complain that King Liu, King Guo and King Zhou didn't shoot the film, but shot a director like him.

Watching Eric Tsang and Fai’s forced funny opening on stage, Liu Zhou felt a little awkward.

Zeng Zhiwei is okay, after all, he is a veteran, but the current Zha Zha Hui is a bit immature, and he is not good at being funny.

In order to promote him, Wang Jing even brought in Stephen Chow to play a supporting role for him.

But without Ruan Yong, he was instead suppressed by Stephen Chow and looked like Zha Zha Hui.

I really didn't know that the Academy Awards organizing committee invited him to be the host this time.

With this somewhat awkward opening over, the award ceremony officially began.

The first award was for Best Newcomer, and with almost no suspense, it went to Jay Chou, the lead actor in Initial D, which ranked second in Hong Kong box office last year.

If there was no "New World" last year, Jay Chou's "Initial D" would have been the fig leaf of Hong Kong films.

It is the only film other than "New World" that entered the top ten of Hong Kong's box office rankings last year.

At this time, Jay Chou has become the real Jay Chou. At the beginning of this year, his contract with Wu Zongxian's record company expired, and he left to establish his own JVR Music Company.

Looking at the young Jay Chou on the stage, he was quite excited after receiving the award. His speech was a bit excited and even childish, and he even hinted at his hope of winning the Best Actor award in the future.

In fact, many people now have great expectations for Jay Chou, but unfortunately, he really does not have the talent for acting.

If Liu Zhou remembers correctly, he has never won any Best Actor award, and it seems that he has not even been nominated.

His personal representative work "Secret" failed to be nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Actor that year. Jay Chou was quite unhappy at the time and described his mood as "a kid gets 100 points on the test but still gets beaten by his parents when he gets home."

After that, technical awards were presented one by one. Although Liu Zhou felt bored, he still pretended to be serious. They made all kinds of jokes and pretended to be amused.

However, Liu Zhou noticed that several mainland female stars next to him looked confused. They looked at others laughing and laughed dryly, but no one knew what they were laughing at.

Later Liu Zhou realized that they didn't understand Cantonese.

Zhang Ziyi is better. She has worked with people from the Hong Kong circle in many dramas and can understand a little. However, Zhou Gongzi and Li Bingbing could not understand anything at all.

Cantonese is still a little difficult for them, as it is almost a completely different language from Mandarin.

However, these award presenters and winners spoke their acceptance speeches quickly, and they were familiar with each other and knew some of the jokes. Only Zhou Gongzi and a few others looked confused.

Now he understands why artists from the mainland and Taiwan rarely come to the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Not only is the Hong Kong circle relatively xenophobic, but their sense of participation is too weak, and they even have a vague sense of loneliness of being excluded.

It would be fine if you can win the award, but if you can’t, who would be willing to be a puppet?

Looking at Li Bingbing, the award presenter, introducing himself in poor Cantonese, Liu Zhou shook his head in his heart.

If we want to expand the influence of the Hong Kong Film Awards to the entire Chinese-speaking film industry, it is not enough to simply break the restrictions on the participating films.

If the Academy Awards does not break the local constraints and get rid of the strong regional labels such as Cantonese and Hong Kong films, it will never become the number one award for Chinese-language films.

As Hong Kong films continue to decline, the Academy Awards may even become history after the older generation of filmmakers retire.

Without people like Andy Lau, Leung Ka Fai, Lau Ching Wan and others, who will pay attention to the Academy Awards in the future?

Among the three major Chinese film awards, the Golden Rooster is officially protected by the mainland and is becoming more and more stable. If the Golden Horse Awards had not died on its own initiative and been abandoned by mainland filmmakers, the Hong Kong Film Awards would have been the first to be affected.

Before Liu Zhou's rebirth, the influence of the Golden Goblet Award at the Shanghai Film Festival had already gradually caught up with that of the Hong Kong Film Awards.

Liu Zhou feels that it is a little too late to change the Academy Awards now, and there is no need to save it at all.

But thinking about the nature of the Golden Horse Awards in later generations, Liu Zhou decided to give it another try.

Soon, the first award related to "New World" finally arrived, Best Sound Effects.

Liu Zhou also perked up a little, but the award was won by Jay Chou's "Initial D".

Later, the Best Editing Award also lost to "Triangle" starring Aaron Kwok, and the Best Photography Award was won by the crew of "If Love".

"If Love" is the first film shot by Chen Kexin in Beijing, and it is a co-production with Shanghai Film Studio.

This movie is also the film that helped Chen Kexin to regain her reputation in mainland China. Although the box office was not very good, it won awards.

After "If Love", Chen Kexin got the big project "The Warlords".

After the Best Photography award, the remaining awards are more important.

The first award was for Best Screenplay, and it was won by Liu Zhou without any surprise.

Liu Zhou shook hands with the people around him with a smile on his face, then went on stage to give a brief speech and then came down.

Although this award is good, he cares more about the Best Director award.

As for the Best Supporting Actor, there was no surprise either, as Liang Jiahui won the award for his role as Ding Qing.

In fact, Liang Jiahui could have applied for the Best Actor award for the role of Ding Qing, but he chose to apply for the Best Supporting Actor award because the real male lead of "New World" is Li Zicheng.

However, Liang Jiahui was also nominated for Best Actor for his outstanding performance in "Underworld", competing with Andy Lau.

The Best Supporting Actress award was won by Teresa Mo for "Precocious", followed by the Best Actress award.

The Best Actress awards were presented by Leung Chiu Wai and Carol Cheng. Leung Chiu Wai was the Best Actor at the last Academy Awards.

There is a rule in the Academy Awards. The best actor and actress who won this year's award will be the award presenter next year. This is a kind of thank you to the organizing committee and can also help the platform to gain some popularity.

Usually it's not a special situation, most award-winning actors and actresses will come to show their respect.

This year's Best Actress at the Academy Awards was won by Zhou Gongzi from "If Love".

With this movie, she not only won the Best Actress award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, but also won this year's Golden Horse Awards for Best Actress, becoming the first actress in mainland China to win all three awards.

Zhang Ziyi had to wait until "The Grandmaster" before she won the Golden Horse Award for Best Actress, achieving the triple gold grand slam.

Mr. Zhou was very emotional when he gave his acceptance speech and even shed tears on the spot.

Next was the most anticipated Best Actor award, and the Best Actor award was presented by last year's Best Actress Zhang Ziyi and Liu Qingyun.

Although the two were joking around, Liu Zhou clearly felt a little nervousness from Andy Lau and Liang Jiahui beside him.

Although both of them are veterans, they are obviously unable to remain calm about the title of Best Actor.

As Zhang Ziyi slowly read out:
"Liang Jiahui! Congratulations!"

There was immediate applause from the audience.

After hearing this, Andy Lau couldn't help but smile bitterly, but then he immediately stood up and gave Liang Jiahui a hug with a sincere smile.

Watching Liang Jiahui go on stage, Liu Zhou whispered to comfort him:
"Brother Hua, come again next time."

"Ok!"

Whether it is the Hong Kong Film Awards or the Golden Horse Awards, they are actually quite harsh on Andy Lau.

Because Andy Lau was an idol before, his performances were always viewed through a filter, and he was a runner-up several times.

However, Andy Lau did not win the Best Actor award this time, which Liu Zhou really didn't understand.

Although "Black and White" is a great movie, the performances of the actors in it are not particularly outstanding.

And Andy Lau's performance in "New World" was undoubtedly outstanding. But then Liu Zhou knew the reason, because Liu Zhou defeated Du Qifeng to win the Best Director, and "New World" also defeated the popular "Black Society" to win the Best Picture.

It seems that the Academy Awards organizing committee is still trying to strike a balance. If "New World" swept the heavyweight awards such as Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor, Best Director and Best Film, it would obviously not be a good look.

But "New World" was the biggest hit, so Liu Zhou and the others didn't dare to offend it. They could only offend Andy Lau, since he had a good temper anyway.

As for Du Qifeng, although "Black Society" was not bad, it lost to "New World", so there is nothing much to say about him.

Although I feel a little bit sorry for Andy Lau, there is nothing we can do as the awards can never be fair and just.

When Liu Zhou went on stage to give his acceptance speech this time, he spoke directly in Mandarin.

He originally wanted to take the opportunity to talk a lot about opening up comprehensive film and television cooperation between the mainland and Hong Kong, but later he felt it was boring and estimated that not many people would be willing to listen.

So he just gave a very normal and ordinary speech.

Liu Zhou should be the first mainland director to win the Best Director award in the 25 years of the Academy Awards.

The Best Actress award already has Zhou Gongzi, and the previous session also had the international star Zhang Ziyi, and even earlier it can be traced back to Siqin Gaowa in 1985.

As for the Best Actor award, if the Academy Awards does not break the restrictions, mainland actors can forget about it.

Not to mention mainland actors, even Taiwanese actors have no chance of winning the Best Actor award. This is the xenophobia in the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

In later generations, Jet Li was the only non-Hong Kong actor to win the Best Actor award at the Hong Kong Film Awards. He won the award for his role in The Warlords.

But Jet Li's career rose to a large extent in Hong Kong. Like Wang Fei, he is considered by many to be a representative of Hong Kong films and music, and a member of the Hong Kong circle.

There is also the issue of his nationality. Some say he became a US citizen in the 90s, some say he joined Singapore in 2007, and some say he joined Singapore in 2009.

Regardless of which statement is correct, this person has become a foreign Chinese.

Liu Zhou felt that since there was a breakthrough in the Best Director award, there could also be a breakthrough in the Best Actor award in the future.

After the Best Picture award was presented, the awards ceremony officially ended.

The biggest winners are undoubtedly "New World" and Liang Jiahui. The former won 8 out of 4 nominations and won the most important Best Picture.

The latter won both the Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor awards, marking his third time winning the Best Actor award at the Academy Awards.

At this time, the Academy Awards still had a great influence and people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong and Macau paid close attention to it.

After the award results came out, they immediately attracted reports from various media.

The mainland media are relatively unified in that they have been bragging about Liu Zhou and Mr. Zhou winning the award.

Liu Zhou, in particular, was a groundbreaking winner of the Best Director Award, and he is also a business tycoon in mainland China, so he became a hot topic.

Sina went all out, not only broadcasting the news about his award, but also placing it directly at the top of the newly launched news hot list.

However, the media in Hong Kong and Taiwan are not so harmonious.

Some people feel sorry for Andy Lau, thinking that his role as Li Zicheng was more outstanding and he should win the Best Actor award.

Some people feel the decline of the Hong Kong film industry. Including last year's international award for Zhang Ziyi, the Best Actress award at the Academy Awards in the past two years has been won by mainland actors.

Even this time, the Best Director award was taken away by a mainland director.

But some people think that it is well-deserved and that it just proves the fairness of the Hong Kong Film Awards. They also advocate greater openness and turning the Awards from a regional Hong Kong Film Awards into the Chinese-language film industry's Film Awards.

There were arguments from all sides, and there were other opinions. It was a mess.

Liu Zhou has long been aware of the nature of the Hong Kong media, as they can cause quarrels over trivial matters.

But this may also be their way of survival. After all, there are hundreds of newspapers and magazines in such a small place as Hong Kong.

So Liu Zhou didn't care about these quarrels at all. Instead of caring about them, he would rather hug Fan Xiaopang and watch the night view of Victoria Harbour on the Hong Kong River.

The Peninsula Hotel, Presidential Suite.

Liu Zhougang and Fan Xiaopang raced around Akina Mountain. At this moment, he was smoking a cigarette comfortably, watching Fan Xiaopang cleaning up after the engine was turned off.

After a while, Fat Fan finished his work and got into bed, leaning on Liu Zhou's arms.

"Are you going back to the mainland tomorrow?"

"I may not be that fast. I still have some things to deal with in Hong Kong."

"Okay, then I have to go back tomorrow to prepare to join the crew to film "The Swordsman 2"."

"So soon? Isn't the project still in the casting stage?"

“With the foundation of the first film, the rest of the preparations are almost complete. As long as we select the actors and train them for a period of time, we can start filming.

I see that the casting process is going pretty fast, so filming should start soon."

"Well, then won't this movie be able to catch up with the Lunar New Year holiday this year?"

"Yes, we can catch up, but Red Cliff II will also be released during the Lunar New Year holiday this year."

"Forget it, let's leave the schedule issue to Zhang Zhao. I'm too lazy to care about this."

After saying that, Liu Zhou touched the headlight and said with a smile:
"When Mr. Zhou went on stage to receive the award, I saw the envy in your eyes almost overflowing, haha."

Fatty Fan patted his mischievous hands and said unhappily:

"Who among actors doesn't want to be a movie queen? Especially not a Hong Kong Film Awards winner. Why don't you help me and tease me instead?"

"Isn't it just the Best Actress Award? That's easy."

Hearing this, Fatty Fan took the initiative to put Liu Zhou's hand on the headlight and said with a smile:

"Do you have a new project?"

"No."

"Then how can you help me, the movie queen?"

“Golden Harvest Films’ Hong Kong branch has a good script called “The Disciple”, and the heroine in it is well written.

I've left this role to you. As long as you act well and work hard, it shouldn't be a problem for you to win the Best Actress award.

But to play the leading role, I need to make some sacrifices."

"Will it be more exposed?"

"No, you will know when the time comes."

Fatty Fan gritted his teeth and said:

"As long as I can win the Best Actress award, it doesn't matter if I make some sacrifices."

Liu Zhou's scalp tingled when he thought of the scene in "Disciples" where the heroine was crawling with rats.

"I hope you can still be tough when we start filming."

"I've experienced all kinds of hardships before."

"How are you going to thank me for helping you like this?"

Hearing Liu Zhou's words, Fat Fan gave him a coquettish look and then slowly slid into the bed.

(End of this chapter)