Chapter 69 Return with Honor
Liu Zhou came to the stage, took the trophy, and slowly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you to the jury and the organizing committee for giving this award to The Tuner. I would also like to thank my film's lead actor Qin Hao, cinematographer Yu Liwei, and everyone in the crew. Thank you."

Liu Zhou gave a brief speech to express his gratitude for the award and then left the stage.

Returning to his seat, Qin Hao took the trophy and looked at it carefully.

"Lao Liu, I didn't expect that we actually won the award."

"It's a pity that it's not the Short Film Palme d'Or, just the Short Film Jury Award."

People always want more and are greedy.

Before winning the award, everyone was feeling expectant, and after winning the award, they were feeling excited.

But after the excitement subsided a little, I started thinking how great it would be to win a bigger prize.

Just like when you are almost starving, you will be satisfied with a piece of steamed bun, but when you are about eight-tenths full, you will start to wish for a piece of meat in the bun.

This is exactly what is meant by greed.

After the Short Film Jury Award was presented, the next award was the Short Film Palme d'Or. The winner of this award was an animated short film from the Maple Leaf Country, "Dawn Breaking".

This is a movie that anthropomorphizes animals and tells the story of the relationships between people in the city. It not only explores human nature, but is also warm and healing.

Cannes likes this kind of tone, and since it is a Western work, it is highly likely that the Palme d'Or will be awarded to this animated short film.

Later, this short film was nominated for the Best Short Film Oscar next year.

Historically, the Short Film Jury Award was given to a Korean short film, but now the award belongs to Liu Zhou.

After the short film awards, the highlight came next: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and the Jury Prize, as well as the ultimate grand prize, the Palme d'Or.

At this time, Yu Liwei and his crew members also started to get nervous, as they all had the chance to win all of the above awards.

The first award to be presented was for Best Actress, and this time there was a double yolk, with Emilie De Quinn from "Rosetta" and Séverine Garnier from "Humans" winning the award together.

Emmanuel Schouten of "Humans" won the Best Actor award, while the Best Director award went to Pedro Almodóvar, director of "All About My Mother."

At this point, the only awards left are the Grand Jury Prize and the Palme d'Or.

Liu Zhou noticed that Yu Liwei and the investors seemed more nervous. Now it was either soaring to great heights or getting nothing.

The award ceremony continued. The Jury Grand Prix was won by the French film "Humans", and the final Palme d'Or was also awarded to the French film "Rosetta".

It seems that any region cannot avoid regional protection.

With all the awards having been given, the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival officially ended.

The crew of "Heaven and Earth" gained nothing and had to return home. The subsequent copyright transaction should have nothing to do with them.

This is how art films work. If you win an award, people will buy your film and it will have value. If you don’t win an award, it may be worthless.

The investors and producers of this film all looked unhappy, and the investment in this film was obviously a complete failure.

Liu Zhou ignored them and walked towards Yu Liwei, who looked lost.

"Brother Yu, let's come again next time."

"I don't even know if there will be a next time." Yu Liwei said with a wry smile.

"How could it be possible that you didn't win? The fact that your first film was shortlisted for the Cannes main competition is already better than many others. It's just a pity that you didn't win."

"Although I know you are just trying to comfort me, thank you anyway."

"You say that, aren't we friends?"

"Yes, we are friends. Forget about me. What are your plans for the future? We may go back soon."

"I'll stay here for another two days and see if I can recoup some of the costs."

That night, Yu Liwei and his team flew back to Hong Kong.

Liu Zhou is waiting to see if any film producer will come to buy the copyright.

I thought that since "The Tuner" was a short film, not many people would be interested in it, but I didn't expect that quite a few people came to inquire about it.

At first Liu Zhou was quite happy, but they came not only to buy the copyright, but also the adaptation rights.

These film producers obviously have a keen eye and realize that expanding this short film into a feature film would be more valuable.

Of course Liu Zhou was unwilling to do this, as he was still thinking of making a feature film based on "The Tuner".

The adaptation rights will be sold at a higher price when the time comes. How can we sell them at a low price now?

Seeing that Liu Zhou insisted on not selling the adaptation rights, many film producers had to leave, and suddenly more than half of the staff were gone.

However, short films still have a certain market in the West, so "The Tuner" also sold some fragmentary copyrights.

But what Liu Zhou didn't expect was that the total value of these fragmentary copyrights actually reached nearly 40,000 euros.

Forty thousand euros is about four hundred thousand RMB, which actually earned back the cost and the expenses of the trip to Cannes, and even had a little surplus.

Liu Zhou invested nearly 200,000 yuan in making this short film.

He is not like Jia Zhangke's miserable crew. When he made the short film, he only had about 10,000 yuan in total, and it was pooled together by more than a dozen people.

Although it was Liu Zhou's first time filming, he did not compromise on any aspect of the production.

Now it seems that this is worthwhile, not only has the cost been recovered, but there is also profit. At the beginning, Liu Zhou did not think about the profit issue, mainly for practice.

But making money is certainly something to be happy about.

After staying in Cannes for two more days, Liu Zhou and Qin Hao also flew back to Beijing.

Seeing the familiar capital city again, Liu Zhou suddenly felt more at home.

When the two returned to school, they actually saw a banner at the school gate that read:

Warm congratulations to Liu Zhou, a junior student at the Central Academy of Drama, for winning the Short Film Jury Award at the Cannes International Film Festival!
Liu Zhou felt both happy and a little embarrassed.

After all, this is just a short film. Liu Zhou would feel more at ease if it was the Grand Jury Prize for a feature film.

After returning to school, Liu Zhou and Qin Hao separated. He went to his own class, while Liu Zhou went to find Lao Huang.

Soon, the news that Liu Zhou and Qin Hao had returned from Cannes spread throughout the campus.

Liu Zhou came to Lao Huang's office and saw him concentrating on writing a report.

"Teacher, I am back."

Huang Weiruo looked up and saw that it was Liu Zhou who was speaking, and immediately smiled happily.

"Haha, good boy, you really didn't bring shame to the Central Academy of Drama."

"I was very lucky this time, thanks to the support of the school."

"School support is secondary. The most important thing is to rely on yourself."

"Teacher, isn't it a bit too much to hang that banner at the school gate? After all, this is just a short film."

Unexpectedly, Old Huang waved his hand and said:

“It’s not surprising. Even though it’s a short film, it still won an award at Cannes and brought honor to our school.

Our Central Academy of Drama rarely produces directors. Now that one has emerged, shouldn’t we show off a little more?”

Seeing Lao Huang's slightly excited look, Liu Zhou couldn't help but ask:
"Teacher, you weren't the one who suggested hanging that banner, were you?"

"Don't worry about who put it there, just know that you are worthy of it."

When Liu Zhou heard Lao Huang say this, he knew it was him who suggested hanging it up, and he felt touched.

Liu Zhou sometimes feels really lucky to have met such a supportive teacher.

Lao Huang has given me a lot of help in getting to where I am now.

"Teacher, I went back to school as soon as I got off the plane. I also wanted to tell you that I have been on the plane for more than ten hours. I have to go home and rest first."

"Go ahead and have a good rest. I'll help you with the leave cancellation."

After leaving Lao Huang's office, Liu Zhou returned to his own courtyard and fell asleep.

What Liu Zhou didn't know was that while he was lying in bed sleeping, not only was the Central Academy of Drama abuzz with his triumphant return, but the media outside were also reporting on it in a series of articles.

The media reported it earlier. As soon as the Cannes closing ceremony ended, domestic media received the news.

After all, one of the contestants this time is Liu Zhou, who has received much media attention, so they are also paying close attention to the award results.

When Liu Zhouyi won the award, domestic media had already reported it while he was still in Cannes.

Not only did the southern media, led by Southern Weekend, go all out to report the news, but media in Shanghai and Beijing also highlighted the news.

The Beijing News, which has always been criticizing Liu Zhou, rarely said anything sarcastic this time and expressed congratulations to Liu Zhou.

Liu Zhou is not paying attention to domestic media now, so he doesn’t know about this incident, but even if he knew, Liu Zhou would not thank the Beijing News.

Some time ago, when Liu Zhou's new novel "The Mysterious City" was serialized, the "Beijing News" openly suspected that Liu Zhou was a tomb robber, otherwise how could he write so professionally.

This incident caused quite a stir. Later, even people from the Palace Museum brought the police to Liu Zhou to find out what happened, leaving Liu Zhou at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

Liu Zhou grew up in Yangcheng, where there was a ghost tomb that could be robbed, so the misunderstanding was quickly resolved.

However, the Beijing News was disgusted with Liu Zhou again and took a photo of a police officer looking for him to understand the situation. The content was completely fabricated, saying that Liu Zhou was suspected of being controlled by the police.

In the end, Liu Zhou had to publicly refute the rumors, but the Beijing News just pretended nothing happened, which made him very angry.

However, the fact that the Beijing News also congratulated Liu Zhou shows how big a sensation Liu Zhou's winning of the award is now.

This popularity even made a director with rotten teeth jealous. He complained in a semi-public occasion:
Isn't it just a short film that won an award? If you don't know, you might think it won the Palme d'Or!
After his complaint was reported by the media, it caused a certain response.

After hearing this, Liu Zhou didn't say much and remained silent.

The water is too deep, the wind is too strong, and if you don’t have the strength, just say less.

My current status in the circle is not as good as his, and he has a large group of people behind him. There is no need to argue with him.

Moreover, the other party is a dog-skin plaster. Now that you are stuck with him, he may use you to hype his movie again when it is released in the future.

Ignoring him is the best option.

Liu Zhou had no idea that a short film of his had won such a big award and had become so popular, which made him feel a little uneasy now.

During this period, he didn't even go to school and stayed in his own yard.

(End of this chapter)