Millennium director

In the second week of March 2018, less than a week after Wu Yuan started filming "The Monkey King", he gave the crew two days off and flew to Dali in a low-key manner.

When he arrived in Dali, the screening of the Dali International Film Festival had come to an end, and the most important closing ceremony awards were about to be presented.

Wu Yuan did not participate in the review process this year, including the invitation of the jury, which was just borrowed from his name. In fact, it was the Light and Shadow Times Film Festival Preparatory Team who invited him.

However, his name is still very useful, and the most influential filmmakers in Asia, Africa and Latin America were still invited to form a five-member jury.

And this year's jury chairman is still Chen Kaige, who was also invited by Wu Yuan's face.

Chen Kaige, who had just finished "Cat Demon Legend", came to review the film and participated in this film week throughout. It is said that during the internal meeting of the jury, he also argued with a certain judge. It seems that there is a movie that Chen Kaige likes very much this year.

Wu Yuan did not know the specific situation, nor did he want to interfere. After all, the Dali International Film Festival will eventually mature, and it cannot always rely on his fame. In the next few sessions, gradually reducing his influence is what the Dali International Film Festival needs to do.

Of course, he is still indispensable for the second session.

The day after Wu Yuan arrived in Dali, the closing ceremony began at 2 pm that day.

The closing ceremony of the Dali International Film Festival was arranged to be held outdoors, directly in the ancient city of Dali, and a long red carpet was pulled.

However, Wu Yuan, the chairman of the organizing committee, did not walk the red carpet. When the participating crews walked the red carpet with red faces, he was already looking at the freshly baked list of winners in the backstage.

The Dali International Film Festival has three units, namely the feature film unit, the short film unit and the new film unit. Among them, the feature film unit is the most important, and Wu Yuan is also concerned about this unit.

After intense discussion and voting by the jury, the winner of this year's Dali International Film Festival Feature Film Unit - Special Attention (Best Film) Award is an Indian independent film called "Soni".

After reading the plot synopsis of this film, Wu Yuan was full of complaints.

This film is a rare realistic subject in Indian films, which fully reveals the problem of oppression of women in the lower class of society.

What oppression?

There are more than 20,000 violent crimes against women in India every year. On average, one woman is raped every 22 minutes, and one woman dies from domestic violence every six hours.

The main story of the film tells the story of the young grassroots policewoman Soni and her boss Kapana, who took over the investigation of different female violence incidents in Delhi. In the process of handling the case, they often encountered major resistance, involving various dark stories, and even affected their own lives.

Well, this is a very literary film.

How should I put it? The fact that this movie won the Best Picture award gave Wu Yuan an indescribable strange feeling. It seemed that he suddenly understood why the "banned films" of the fifth generation directors were so popular in the European art market and even won awards.

Sure enough, this kind of film that exposes the ugly side of one's own country can attract the interest and attention of foreigners, and even give awards.

This "Soni" from India was able to win the Best Film Award at the Dali International Film Festival. Isn't this a replica of the situation of Chinese filmmakers in Europe?

As long as you make some movies that show the ugliness of your own country, you can get awards.

Of course, maybe this is also because Wu Yuan's thoughts are too dark. At least neither he nor the Light and Shadow Times made any hints to the judges, asking them to give the green light to such movies.

The fact that "Soni" was able to win the award is really just the result of the unanimous approval of the five judges. It can only be said that this group of people who make art films like this. If they don't make some social dark sides and oppression and persecution, it will be difficult to win awards.

Wu Yuan did not comment on this. Anyway, the world's art film festivals all do this, so there is no need for him to sing a different tune. In short, just trust the jury's vision.

In addition to "Soni", the Best Director Award was won by a Serbian film called "Space". This film uses a road movie-like approach to show the situation of Serbia during the bombing, and cleverly runs through the history of the Balkan Peninsula, reflecting the devastation of the people by the war. It is an anti-war film, so it is normal to win the award.

As for the second place "Jury Award", it was won by a film called "Spring".

Well, this movie has something to do with Wu Yuan, or more precisely, it has something to do with Beijing Film Academy. Among the producers of this film is Tian Zhuangzhuang, the director is a female director who graduated from Beijing Film Academy, and the investor is Wanda.

In a word, this director has a deep and strong background, and is a legitimate academic school, so much so that Chen Kaige had to give face to his alma mater and give face to his alma mater, and was somewhat biased when judging the award.

Apart from that, Wu Yuan didn't pay much attention to the remaining awards and the short film and newcomer categories. He didn't even have any impression of the nominated films, and he hardly knew the directors and actors.

It can only be said that the Dali International Film Festival still has a long way to go.

By the time he had almost finished reading the list of winners, the red carpet session at the front desk was basically over. The various media invited to the scene had already posted the first batch of reports on the Internet, and the award ceremony officially began.

As the chairman of the organizing committee, Wu Yuan was the first to go on stage and make a speech, mainly saying some clichés such as standing on the current film industry, looking forward to future films, and encouraging third world filmmakers.

After he finished his speech, Chen Kaige made a speech on behalf of the jury, and the award ceremony officially began.

The five judges of the jury plus Wu Yuan, the chairman of the organizing committee, became the main award presenters of this award ceremony, and took turns to present awards to the winning crews.

Although the Dali International Film Festival is a very young film festival, it is definitely a happy thing for any crew to win an award, and the atmosphere on the scene is naturally very good.

However, happy times are always short, and soon the award ceremony with not many awards came to an end.

Standing on the stage, Wu Yuan presented the last and most important award.

"The film that won the Special Attention Award in the Feature Film Unit of this year's Dali International Film Festival is!"

He slowly unfolded the folded letter paper in his hand and looked at the foreign crew sitting at the front table with a bright smile: "Congratulations to the crew of "Soni" from India!"

A group of Indians with brown skin stood up in surprise, hugged and cheered each other, and walked onto the podium under the applause of the audience for a long time.

Such a film that describes the oppression of Indian women at the bottom of society is very difficult to receive in India. It is a very exciting thing for the entire crew to be able to win an award abroad!

"Thank you, Chairman Wu Yuan!"

"Thank you very much!" The bearded director of "Soni" took the framed certificate from Wu Yuan with tears in his eyes.