Chapter 270 Golden Lion
As the seven jury members walked the red carpet, the award ceremony was about to begin.

At this time, the hall began to quiet down, and soon the two hosts came on stage.

At the beginning, everyone paid tribute to the famous Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni.

This Italian national treasure director passed away peacefully at home two months ago at the age of 94.

Therefore, all singing and dancing performances were cancelled at this Venice Film Festival, and the awards ceremony began shortly after the memorial service.

As in Berlin and Cannes, the first awards given out are those in non-main competition units.

However, the only good thing about the Venice Film Festival is that there are not many award categories in the non-competitive units.

Unlike Berlin and Cannes, few people can remember all the various award names.

This also makes the awards in the non-main competition units of the Venice Film Festival more valuable.

The first award was the Horizon Award, which went to the Estonian film "Autumn Dance", followed by the International Federation of Film Critics Award, which went to the French film "Millet and Mullet".

The non-main competition units mainly focus on these two awards.

After presenting the New Actor and New Director Awards and several other insignificant awards, the award ceremony is about to reach its climax.

However, before presenting the last few important awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to the famous Italian filmmaker and world-renowned director Bernardo Bertolucci.

He is also the director of The Last Emperor, which won nine Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director.

The next award was for Best Screenplay, which was won by the British film "Free World", a film that reflects contemporary social issues in the UK.

The film director points the camera directly at the undocumented working class in the shadows of a prosperous society, and at the capitalists who use dirty tricks to maximize profits.

Even though this movie won an award, the crew members didn't seem very happy.

After all, if they win this award, they may miss out on the most important awards later on.

You know, when it was screened before, "Free World" was a hot work like "Lust, Caution" and "The Sun Also Rises".

But now it is very likely to stop here.

After the Best Screenplay award, the next award was for Best Cinematography, which went to the two photographers of Lust, Caution.

Seeing this result, Liu Zhou couldn't help but frown slightly.

The Best Cinematography award in Venice is not a simple award like the Best Screenplay award. Once it’s awarded to you, it’s nothing to do with you.

The Best Cinematography award is known as the precursor award for the Golden Lion. More than one-third of the films that won the Golden Lion also won the Best Cinematography award.

Will the Golden Lion be won by "Lust, Caution" again this time as in history?

However, this is not absolute after all, and Liu Zhou continues to wait for the results of the last few awards.

The Best Actress award was to be presented next. At this moment, Liu Zhou clearly felt that Zeng Li's hands were clenched into fists and she looked a little stiff. It was obvious that she was very nervous.

Everyone would be nervous at this moment, as this might be her last chance and also the one with the greatest hope.

Among domestic actresses, there are only a handful who have won Best Actress awards at the three major European film festivals.

Seeing her like this, Liu Zhou couldn't help but hold her hand.

Zeng Li turned her head at this time, and Liu Zhou's smiling face came into view. She couldn't help but smile, then took a deep breath, and her nervous mood eased a lot.

Not long after, the award presenter opened the envelope and said slowly:

"The winner of the Best Actress Award at the 64th Venice International Film Festival is Zeng Li from Room!"

As soon as the above words fell, Liu Zhou couldn't help but clench his fist with one hand, and then looked at Zeng Li.

At this time, Zeng Li covered her mouth with her hands, her eyes wide open, with a look of disbelief.

"Li Zi, congratulations, you won the award, Venice Film Festival Best Actress!" Liu Zhou said with a smile.

“Did I really win a prize?”

“Yes, you really won a prize!”

Hearing Liu Zhou's affirmative answer, Zeng Li seemed to finally come to her senses, then stood up and hugged Liu Zhou tightly.

Liu Zhou also ignored the surprised looks of others and hugged Zeng Li tightly.

After several seconds, Liu Zhou whispered in her ear:

"Okay, go up on stage and receive your award."

When Zeng Li heard Liu Zhou's words, her cheeks turned slightly red. Then she let go of Liu Zhou and slowly walked towards the stage.

At this moment, no matter how complicated the mood of the people in the audience was, they all gave Zeng Li a warm round of applause.

Zeng Li took the Best Actress trophy from the guest and walked to the microphone. Her emotions had calmed down a lot by then. She said slowly:

“Thank you to the organizing committee, thank you to the jury, thank you for recognizing me and awarding me the Best Actress award.

I would also like to thank all the members of the "Room" crew. Without you, there would be no "Room" movie, and I would not have won the award.

Finally, I would like to thank one person in particular, that is Liu Zhou, the director of "Room". It is because of you that I have come this far and can stand here now.

This Best Actress trophy is the best gift for my acting career!"

Looking at Zeng Li standing in the center of the stage, Liu Zhou couldn't stop smiling.

Since Zeng Li was able to successfully win the Best Actress trophy this time, Liu Zhou can be said to have achieved his goal in filming the movie "Room".

As for whether he or the film can win an award, it is no longer very important.

After that, Zeng Li also walked off the stage amid applause. Returning to her seat, Zeng Li couldn't wait to put the Best Actress trophy into Liu Zhou's hands, wanting to share this joy with him.

"You're quite good at speaking. Did you prepare this acceptance speech for a long time in private?"

"I did prepare a little bit."

Liu Zhou carefully looked at the Best Actress trophy, then stuffed it back into Zeng Li's hands and said with a smile:

"No regrets now, right?"

"there is none left!"

"When you return home, your classmates will surely envy you to death. You should be the first person in your class to win the Best Actress award at one of the three major European competitions, right?"

"That's right!"

As the Best Actor award was about to be announced, Liu Zhou and Zeng Li stopped talking and focused their attention on the stage.

In the end, the Best Actor trophy was won by Hollywood's popular star Brad Pitt.

This should be the biggest star at this Venice Film Festival, but his performance in "Jackson Assassin" was indeed very outstanding, and he deserved the Best Actor award.

Although Brad Pitt is also very handsome, he is different from Tom Cruise. The latter is an idol, while he is a well-known actor.

This was the second time he was crowned emperor in Venice.

The Best Director award was then won by Brian De Palma for his film "Redacted," which exposed the atrocities committed by the U.S. military in Iraq.

After the Best Director award was presented, the award ceremony came to an end.

Now only the Grand Jury Prize and the all-important Golden Lion remain to be awarded.

At this moment, all the crews shortlisted for the main competition unit in the audience couldn't help but look nervous.

Even Li An and Jiang Wen, who were experienced in the battlefield, couldn't help but hold their breath.

Perhaps the only one who was relatively relaxed was Liu Zhou. After all, his main purpose of coming to the exhibition had been achieved.

But there was still some anticipation in his heart, so Liu Zhou also watched the stage intently.

The guests on the stage didn't keep everyone waiting too long and directly announced the winning film of the Jury Grand Prix. What was unexpected was that this time there was a double yolk egg.

When Liu Zhou heard the name of the winning work, he couldn't help but sit up straight, because the flapping of his butterfly wings really had an impact here.

The winners of the Grand Jury Prize were Lust, Caution and I'm Not There.

In other words, the Golden Lion award for Li An's "Lust, Caution" was ruined by Liu Zhou.

In that case, Liu Zhou's "Room" seems to have a greater chance of winning the Golden Lion.

Although Li An was smiling while giving his acceptance speech on the stage, Liu Zhou didn't know if it was his illusion, but he always felt that Li An seemed a little regretful and unwilling.

But no matter how regretful and unwilling he was, the Golden Lion had nothing to do with him this time.

As the last presenter of the Golden Lion Award walked onto the stage, the tense atmosphere in the audience became more and more prevalent.

The most nervous person among them was Jiang Wen.

The three major directors who had been praised by the domestic media were competing for the Golden Lion, but so far he is the only one who has not won anything.

If he missed this last Golden Lion, his trip to Venice would be a complete failure.

He is well aware of the nature of the domestic media. The more highly they praise you before, the more they will trample you down later, especially when there is an obvious contrast.

In fact, Jiang Wen has never won any of the three highest awards in Europe. His best achievement was that Devils on Doorstep won a Grand Jury Prize in Cannes.

However, his movie "Sunny Days" had a great influence overseas, so Jiang Wen has always had a place in the overseas film industry.

At this time, not only Jiang Wen, but everyone else stared at the envelope in the award presenter's hand, watching him slowly open it, and then said with a smile:

""Room"! Congratulations!"

When Liu Zhou heard the final result, he was also a little bit unbelievable at first. He didn't expect that he actually won the Golden Lion.

Then he reacted after hearing Zeng Li's cheers, and stood up and gave her a tight hug.

On the other side, Jiang Wen couldn't help shaking his head after hearing that Liu Zhou won the final grand prize. Then he looked at Liu Zhou with a smile on his face as he slowly walked towards the stage.

Jiang Wen had mixed feelings towards Liu Zhou.

He originally wanted to improve his relationship with the other party, but he didn't expect that the other party didn't want to pay attention to him at all.

This made him, who had always been quite proud, feel ignored for the first time.

To be honest, Jiang Wen originally thought that Liu Zhou's directing skills were just okay, even though his works had high box office results.

But unexpectedly, in this duel, the opponent defeated him head-on and took down the Golden Lion.

This made Jiang Wen want to take a closer look at what kind of movie "Room" directed by Liu Zhou was.

As Liu Zhou slowly walked off the stage, it also meant that this year's Venice Film Festival awards ceremony officially ended and the film festival also ended successfully.

But for the media, the carnival has just begun.

Thanks to the presence of many domestic reporters at the scene, the country should already know the final result of the Venice event.

But the fastest media is online media. When other media are still typesetting, the front pages of the four major portals have already announced the results.

This immediately caused a huge sensation in the country!

(End of this chapter)