Nobody knows movies better than me

Chapter 8 Who Has the Strongest Connections?

Although the Beijing College Student Film Festival claims that the awards are decided by a vote of college students, the actual percentage of student votes is very small.

The awarding of most prizes is decided by the judges, who are veterans from the film and television industry.

On the eve of the film festival, Lu Fangzhen, one of the judges, took his son Lu Zhengyu to visit other judges to expand his son's network.

"Old Chen, about the short film competition..."

One of the judges, Lao Chen, immediately patted his chest and assured him, "Don't worry, Lao Lu, we've seen Zheng Yu's films, and they're quite good."

The short films submitted by other schools were mostly subpar; Zheng Yu will definitely win an award.

Without his father reminding him, Lu Zhengyu immediately expressed his gratitude: "Thank you for your support, Uncle Chen."

"You're welcome!"

Old Chen patted Lu Zhengyu on the shoulder and said, "The future of our film and television industry depends on young people like you with a strong family tradition to shoulder this responsibility."

Lu Zhengyu quickly replied, "I will definitely live up to Uncle Chen's expectations and contribute my own strength to the film and television industry."

Leaving Old Chen's house, Lu Zhengyu couldn't hide his excitement: "Dad, we're almost certain we'll win the award this time, right?"

Lu Fangzhen nodded: "I've also inquired about it. None of the other entries in this competition have any connections to the film and television industry, so it's only right that you won the award."

The film and television industry has always placed great importance on its own circles and connections, and it tends to favor its own people. Even the Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards are influenced by personal relationships, not to mention the College Student Film Festival.

However, Lu Fangzhen did not consider one situation: among the teams participating in this competition were prestigious universities such as Peking University and Tsinghua University.

Perhaps subconsciously he believed that these two top universities in the country were not good at this, so there was no need to worry.

However, he did not expect that the situation had changed because of Zhang Jun's appearance.

Shortly after Lu Fangzhen and his son left, judge Lao Chen received a call from Jin Yan, the chairman of the jury for this year's College Student Film Festival.

Jin Yan previously co-directed "Stories from the Editorial Department" with Zhao Baogang, a very classic TV series. His contribution to attracting so many universities to participate in this short film competition is undeniable.

Because his family members are either well-known scholars, academicians, or doctoral professors at universities, and have a wide influence in academia.

Therefore, due to his family connections, various universities gave him face and actively participated in this university short film competition.

Jin Yan called Lao Chen for a simple reason: Tsinghua University had submitted its entry, "The Tuner," so he invited Lao Chen and several judges to come and take a look.

Upon hearing this, Old Chen immediately sensed something was wrong. He had a premonition that things might change regarding Lu Fangzhen's request for his help.

As for Jin Yan, he had already finished reading "The Tuner" and was honestly quite surprised.

He was even more surprised when his uncle told him that the work was taken by a senior astronomy student at Tsinghua University.

His uncle, Jin Denian, is a renowned calligrapher, a retired professor from Tsinghua University, and a member of the China Calligraphers Association. When his uncle called him, Jin Yan thought his uncle wanted him to pull some strings.

However, Jin Denian said, "I have already seen the short film. I don't know much about short films, but I think the story is quite good and original."

Take a look and see how it goes, then give a fair judgment.

If there's a better short film, I have no objection; but if not, please fulfill your role as the jury chair.

Jin Denian had heard Jin Yan talk about some of the bad practices in the film and television industry, and he was afraid that his school's excellent works would be tarnished, so he asked Jin Yan to make a guarantee.

After watching it, Jin Yan immediately called Jin Denian: "Uncle, this short film is outstanding. The story is very complete, and the suspense, atmosphere, and visuals are impeccable among short films."

If you hadn't told me the background of this short film, I would have almost assumed it was the work of an industry veteran.

Jin Denian was relieved after hearing this: "Okay, I believe you. I believe you will make a fair judgment."

"Absolutely. If such a good work is overlooked, it would mean that this year's judges are blind to its merits," Jin Yan quickly assured him.

Jin Denian hung up the phone and said to Hou Yu, who was sitting opposite him, "Little Hou, I've done what you asked me to do."

Hou Yu quickly expressed his gratitude: "Mr. Jin, thank you so much. Without your connection, we would have had a really hard time getting this done."

Jin Denian waved his hand and said, "If I hadn't seen the video, I wouldn't have made this call for you. Ultimately, it's because you did an excellent job."

Hou Yu was overjoyed inside, but he remained calm on the surface.

"It's all thanks to the students; I only did some insignificant work."

Zhang Jun was surprised that Hou Yu would actually pull such a stunt. He hadn't expressed any dissatisfaction with Hou Yu's attempt to steal credit, but it soon brought him a reward.

However, even without this reward, Zhang Jun would not care about Hou Yu's actions.

When you're young, you might be filled with righteous indignation, but a mature approach is to rationally weigh the gains and losses and make a favorable judgment.

A graduating senior arguing with an associate professor from Tsinghua University would definitely be a losing proposition for the graduate. The result of not arguing is that the rewards are beyond imagination.

After Tsinghua University submitted its entry, the other participating universities followed suit. The thirteen judges watched more than twenty short films before making their judgments.

The judges' meeting room was filled with smoke. As the chairman of the judging panel, Jin Yan set the tone first.

"As judges at the College Student Film Festival, our aim is to be close to students' lives, understand their thoughts, and select the best films."

Everyone, please share your opinions!

"Old Chen, you go first."

Old Chen, whose name was mentioned, understood the implication and quickly said, "I watched all the short films in the competition, and they were all very good, but the most outstanding one is 'The Tuner' from Tsinghua University."

I believe this film deserves an award in this year's short film competition.

Jin Yan nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the other judges, including Lu Fangzhen.

"Old Lu, what do you think?" Jin Yan asked directly.

He knew that before the selection process began, Lu Fangzhen had taken his son Lu Zhengyu around to try and win an award for him.

If it weren't for Jin Denian's phone call, and if the entry from Tsinghua University had been of average quality, Lu Zhengyu would have won the award.

But there are no "what ifs" in the world, and Lu Zhengyu could not have made a better short film than "The Tuner".

Therefore, Lu Fangzhen had to force a smile: "I think 'Andhadhun' should win an award, which is also a representative of the spirit of fairness, impartiality and openness embodied in this year's College Student Film Festival."

With Lu Fangzhen expressing this opinion, the other judges felt even less pressured and unanimously voted that "The Tuner" deserved to win the award.

As for the student vote, Jin Yan believes that as long as the college students are not stupid or blind, they will be able to tell which short film is better.

Moreover, their voting percentage is very small, so as long as the judges reach a consensus, they can be guaranteed to win.

The 5th Beijing College Student Film Festival opened on May 28, 2004. The festival lasted for three days and featured 25 domestic films, including "Warm Spring" and "Cellphone".

However, the short film competition section is the most popular among students, as it features short films from 28 universities and is screened in rotation throughout the film festival.

Lu Zhengyu was very unhappy.

This time, he used the name of Beijing Film Academy to shoot the short film "Master". He originally planned to win an award based on his family's excellent short film and his father's relationship, paving the way for his future directing career.

But when his father came home from the meeting that day, he told his family that the Best Short Film award had already been given out, and he could only receive an Outstanding Short Film award.

What is the Best Short Film Award? It's an award that you can win just by participating; frankly, it's a consolation prize.

Lu Zhengyu was very dissatisfied, but his father told him that the winning entry was from Tsinghua University and was of very high quality.

Given his connection to Tsinghua University, it would have been impossible for him not to win an award.

Unconvinced, Lu Zhengyu immediately attended the three-day exhibition and saw the short film called "The Tuner." Despite his prejudice, he felt lost after watching the film.

As my father said, the quality of this short film is far superior to his nonsensical "Master".

"What the hell is this world? Even students from prestigious universities can be this outstanding when making short films?" Lu Zhengyu couldn't help but curse and complain.

Little did he know that Huang Xiwen, the president of the film club at Peking University next door, was even more dumbfounded. He originally thought that even if his short film didn't win an award, it would at least be better than the entry from Tsinghua University.

But when he arrived at the exhibition with his film club members and saw the entries from Tsinghua University, he was dumbfounded.

"Holy crap, this is so beautiful!"

The students from Peking University's film club were equally surprised: "Is this true? Did Tsinghua University secretly start a film course? Didn't they say their work was produced by their own university?"

Huang Xiwen didn't know, but he happened to see students from the Tsinghua University Film Association visiting the exhibition, so he decided to ask them.

"Did you hire a well-known screenwriter and director to make this short film?"

Before Ye Xiaoyi could answer, Zhao Liangchen proudly replied, "How could that be? This is something we wrote, directed, and acted ourselves."

The male lead in the short film is me, didn't you recognize me?

"Really? Is Tsinghua University trying to pull some kind of scam?"

"What do you mean by that? To be able to produce such an excellent short film by fabricating stories, I think you Peking University students are just jealous."

"Who's jealous? Our short film is excellent too, okay?"

Seeing that the two groups were about to start arguing, Ye Xiaoyi had no choice but to step in and stop them: "President Huang, you'll doubt whatever we say anyway."

But I can tell you that this short film was indeed created by one of our students; he just wasn't here today.

Huang Xiwen asked curiously, "Who is he?"

"Zhang Jun is a senior student in the Department of Astronomy, College of Science, Tsinghua University."

Huang Xiwen frowned: "Why didn't he come?"

Why didn't Zhang Jun come? Because he was preparing for his graduation defense!