Chapter 245 Debate and the Luxury Jury
This restructuring of the Hong Kong Film Awards has caused quite a stir not only in Hong Kong, but also in Mainland China and Taiwan.

So people know what this means.

This shows that Hong Kong films are no longer confined to their own small circle, but are preparing to gradually merge with the mainland film industry.

This is of course something that the mainland will welcome, as the authorities have wanted to do this for a long time.

However, there has always been great resistance from the Hong Kong film industry, and it is difficult for the higher authorities to directly adopt tough measures, so it has been dragged on.

However, after 2010, this situation no longer mattered in the mainland.

At that time, Hong Kong films were really on the decline, while the mainland film industry was beginning to flourish, and the film market was experiencing explosive growth.

So the attitude of the mainland film industry at that time was that it was up to you to agree or not, and people even felt that those conservative Hong Kong filmmakers were a bit ridiculous.

But it is still 2007, and the timing can be said to be just right.

At this time, mainland films were on the eve of taking off, and the influence of Hong Kong films had not yet been exhausted. Everyone still had great expectations and filters for Hong Kong stars and Hong Kong films.

Now that Hong Kong films and the mainland film industry are actively merging, it is a happy thing for both the mainland's upper class and the audience.

As the main promoter of this matter, Liu Zhou was of course recognized by his superiors.

When Liu Zhou acquired Golden Harvest, they hoped to use Golden Harvest as a bridge to promote the integration of Hong Kong films and the mainland film industry.

But unexpectedly, Liu Zhou's method was even simpler and more brutal. He directly forced the reform of the Academy Awards to promote film exchanges between the two places.

Although it's a bit crude, it's very useful.

This kind of thing cannot be praised publicly, so the outside world is not quite clear why Hong Kong films suddenly made this change.

But those in the industry who are a little more informed know that it was Liu Zhou who was pushing it behind the scenes.

The bosses of several companies understand it better, but this doesn't even make them jealous.

Because they can't do this.

Everyone knows that Liu Zhou's status in the Chinese film industry will rise significantly again.

As for the Taiwanese media, they are a bit sarcastic.

They directly and explicitly criticized that Hong Kong films are about to lose their distinctive characteristics and that the Hong Kong Film Awards are about to lose their symbolic status as Hong Kong films.

Some weird media even used the word "surrender".

The other two media ignored them. People in the industry all know that sometimes the weirdness of Taiwanese media can refresh everyone's perspectives.

And anyone with a discerning eye knows who will be most affected by the reform of the Academy Awards?
Of course it’s Wanwan’s Golden Horse Awards.

At that time, the Golden Horse Awards was not yet the top award for Chinese-language films. Since the establishment of the Hong Kong Film Awards, the status and influence of the Golden Horse Awards have always been inferior to those of the Hong Kong Film Awards, and this is still the case now.

The glory of Hong Kong films is not funny. The influence of Hong Kong films at that time was also undeniable. In the eyes of filmmakers around the world, Hong Kong films at that time were equivalent to Chinese-language films.

Taiwanese movies have been dead since the 1980s.

So even if Hong Kong films are now completely in decline, the Hong Kong Film Awards still have a greater influence than the Golden Horse Awards due to their residual influence.

I originally thought that the influence of the Academy Awards would gradually dissipate with the decline of Hong Kong films, and the Golden Horse Awards would just be a good opportunity to take its place.

But unexpectedly, the previously closed Academy Awards was restructured and opened up, which completely thwarted the Golden Horse Awards' idea of ​​rising to the top.

Now with the more influential Academy Awards, mainland films and filmmakers have better choices.

The Golden Horse Awards are destined to be unable to continue to spread their influence, and they will not be able to do whatever they did before.

What was originally a good film award has been mixed with too many other things, which has affected the mentality of mainland filmmakers from time to time.

But at that time, because the mainland film industry was in decline, everyone had to endure it.

In the second decade of the new century, if the Golden Horse Awards mess up people's mentality again, mainland filmmakers will simply ignore you.

And now, if you dare to do anything else, no one will pay attention to you.

The Golden Horse Awards certainly don't want to see something like this happen, so they want to use this kind of provocation to incite some Hong Kong filmmakers to resist the reform of the Academy Awards.

There were even some senior Taiwanese filmmakers who came to Hong Kong to try to stop this, but in the end they found it was of no avail.

No matter how the Taiwanese media criticize or how the Hong Kong media argue, the reform of the Academy Awards is still progressing steadily.

The first point is to revise the rules of the Academy Awards.

The first thing to be affected is the selection mechanism.

In the past, films that could participate in the Academy Awards had to be invested by Hong Kong film companies, produced by Hong Kong people, and released in Hong Kong.

Now, any Chinese-language film released in China within a calendar year can participate in the Academy Awards.

Then the selection method of the Academy Awards was changed.

Now the Academy Awards selection is divided into two rounds, the first round selects the nomination list, and the second round selects the winners.

Two months before the Academy Awards are officially held, the Academy Awards Organizing Committee will randomly select at least 1,500 Academy Awards "voters" and have these voters vote.

The voters are composed of Chinese film industry practitioners, film critics and professional media professionals.

Each voter can choose three different films in each category.

The ballots will then be handed over to PricewaterhouseCoopers. After reviewing the ballots, PricewaterhouseCoopers will hand over the results to the Academy Awards Organizing Committee, which will announce the nomination list.

Before the second round of judging, the Academy Awards Organizing Committee will invite six professional judges to form a jury.

Finally, the jury will make the selection based on the nomination list and together with the relevant industries in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan!

For example, the Best Director award will be decided by six judges and the Directors Associations of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

If it is the Best Actor or Best Actress, the decision will be made by voting of six judges and the actors' associations of three places.

To a certain extent, this also makes it more difficult for the film to be "publicized".

Of course, it means increasing, not eliminating.

It is impossible to eliminate it!

The fact that Gwyneth Paltrow won the Best Actress award at the Oscars is enough to explain the situation!

Not to mention Harvey Weinstein, the scumbag who has been professionally targeting the Oscars for 20 years!
But at least this is fairer than Cannes, Venice and Berlin, where the awards are decided by a few judges.

Sometimes, European film festivals make their decisions based on the tastes of a few judges.

Even if the chairman of the jury is as capricious as Quentin and King of Sunglasses, they can just ignore it.

However, in order to show respect for the jury members, the final award, Best Picture, will be decided by the jury's vote.

Because there are only six jury members, in order to avoid the situation of the same vote, the jury chairman is given more weight, and his vote counts as two votes. And each jury member has the right to "plead" for the film he likes.

This year marks the first year of the Academy Awards since its restructuring, and the organizing committee has also invited a very heavyweight jury.

The chairman of the jury is the famous Hong Kong comedian Xu Guanwen.

The other five members are the famous mainland director Zhang Yimou, the famous Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, the famous Hong Kong director Chu Yuan, the national treasure-level actor Takakura Ken from Japan, and the Hollywood superstar Keanu Reeves.

All six jury members are highly respected or famous figures in the industry.

In order to take the feelings of Hong Kong filmmakers into consideration this time, the proportion of filmmakers from Hong Kong on the jury is slightly larger.

Although Ken Takakura and Keanu Reeves are not Chinese, they are both very well-known people in China, and they both have a relatively friendly attitude towards China.

So Liu Zhou didn't even have to do anything about the invitation from the Hong Kong Film Awards Organizing Committee, they all agreed readily.

In the future, this jury will also form a routine, like the three major European schools, which mainly invite celebrity judges.

This can both promote and complete the selection process.

Moreover, celebrity judges will, to a certain extent, attract more audiences to pay attention to the Academy Awards.

For example, many great directors and stars in later generations served as judges or jury chairmen at major film festivals, all of which took this factor into consideration.

Next is the list of nominees for this year's Academy Awards.

The best films include "Fathers and Sons," "The Disciples," "Exile," "Tengu" and "Tokyo Trial."

There are three Hong Kong movies, two mainland movies, and as for Taiwanese movies, there are really no good ones.

The best director awards include Patrick Tam for Fathers and Sons, Du Qifeng for Exile, Qi Jian for Tengu, Derek Yee for The Disciples and Yin Li for The Clouds and Water.

The best actor awards include Aaron Kwok for "Father and Son", Fu Dalong for "Tengu", Liang Chaowei for "City of Pain", Liu Qingwan for "I Want to Be Famous" and Chen Kun for "The Clouds and the Water".

Liu Zhou was originally on the nomination list, but Liu Zhou directly told the Academy Awards organizing committee that he would not participate in the selection.

The nominees for Best Actress are Angelica Lee from "The Devil's Nest", Liu Jialing from "Curiosity Kills the Cat", Rene Liu from "Happy Birthday", Fan Bingbing from "The Disciples" and Zhu Yuanyuan from "Tengu".

From the nomination lists of these four most important awards, it can be seen that this selection also takes into account films from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and Hong Kong.

There was no phenomenon where slogans were shouted loudly but the final results remained the same as before.

In fact, after the nomination list came out, everyone understood that this time the reform of the Academy Awards was serious.

Even if most of the awards go to Hong Kong films or Hong Kong filmmakers, everyone can accept it.

For the mainland, having purely mainland films or actors appear on the nomination list for the Academy Awards has already met expectations.

After all, this is only the first time. It’s a good start and we can take it slow in the future.

Liu Zhou also did something interesting for this year's Academy Awards.

In addition to promoting this reform, his most important job is to attract sponsorship.

First, Sina, owned by Liu Zhou, was the first to go on the scene. Not only did it sponsor one million Hong Kong dollars, it also won the text and picture live broadcast rights of this year's Academy Awards for another one million Hong Kong dollars.

At the same time, Liu Zhou also used his relationship with Golden Harvest to attract two sponsors, Wahaha and Septwolves, for two million each.

Wahaha has been cooperating with Zhoushan Studio since the beginning of the century, and Zeng Li is their spokesperson, and the name has not changed until now.

After Qin Hao became popular again in "Red Cliff", he also became the spokesperson for Wahaha.

Therefore, Jiahe has always maintained a very good relationship with Wahaha.

As for Septwolves, it is because Huang Xiaoming has become their spokesperson and they are currently in a period of rapid development, so they are also willing to take a gamble on the ratings of this Academy Awards.

After all, this is the first award ceremony after the reform of the Academy Awards, and Liu Zhou is not very confident that it will be a hit.

Therefore, in order not to damage the reputation, only two companies with close relations were invited.

If the ratings of this year's Academy Awards fail, Liu Zhou is also prepared to pay out of his own pocket to compensate them for the sponsorship fees they gave.

As for the TV station that will broadcast the event, that has already been agreed upon.

Television stations are much more sensitive to developments in the entertainment industry.

Compared with the conservatism of traditional companies, they are very optimistic about this year's Academy Awards ceremony.

Not to mention that there was such a big fuss in the early stages due to the controversy, the fact that this is the first time after the reform, the organizing committee and the people behind it will definitely not let this award ceremony be a dull occasion.

Not to mention, who among the jury is not a well-known figure?
Not to mention the domestic ones, Ken Takakura is a superstar throughout Asia, and Keanu Reeves, who starred in "The Matrix", is a global superstar.

With the two of them, they can attract a lot of attention.

In Hong Kong, Liu Zhou originally wanted to continue looking for ATV, its previous long-time partner of the Academy Awards.

But last year someone contacted Peter Lam and was preparing to acquire ATV. Liu Zhou was worried that there would be turmoil within ATV, so he turned to TVB.

As a local television station in Hong Kong, TVB is more aware of how grand this Academy Awards is.

So when Liu Zhou came to him, he agreed without hesitation and won the broadcasting rights of the Academy Awards ceremony for two million Hong Kong dollars.

As for Taiwan, although they keep criticizing, they are still very honest when it comes to their interests.

Three TV stations approached the organizing committee, hoping to secure the broadcasting rights in Taiwan.

In the end, it turned out that the boss of Eastern Television had stronger connections and also got it for HK$2 million.

As for the mainland, Liu Zhou originally wanted to cooperate with Guangdong Satellite TV because Guangdong Satellite TV and Liu Zhou have the best relationship.

But what Liu Zhou did not expect was that Xiangnan Satellite TV actually approached him on its own initiative, wanting to win the broadcasting rights for the Academy Awards ceremony in the mainland.

Taking into account the larger audience base of Shonan TV and out of a sense of responsibility towards the sponsor, Liu Zhou agreed to cooperate with Shonan TV.

However, it is somewhat troublesome for mainland TV stations to broadcast programs in Hong Kong, and various procedures are required.

But this did not pose a problem for Shonan TV, as they established the connection last month.

The price for the broadcasting rights in the mainland is even more expensive, and Shonan TV paid a full five million.

It’s not that Liu Zhou deliberately ripped them off, but the mainland market is much larger and definitely more expensive.

Moreover, this is the first time that a mainland TV station has broadcast the Academy Awards ceremony, so it is bound to be quite a sensation.

Liu Zhou's guess was soon proved. Within a few days of the announcement of the news, Xiangnan TV had sold most of the advertising space, directly earning back the broadcasting fee and even making an extra three to four million.

Together, these funds raised a total of HK$15 million for this year's Academy Awards.

Therefore, the organizing committee of the Academy Awards made this award ceremony extra grand.

(End of this chapter)