The Cannes Film Festival was one of the most prestigious film festivals in the industry, and it attracted considerable attention every year.
Of course, that was true for people in the industry.
After all, it was a great place to gild one's reputation and do business.
At first, ordinary domestic viewers and netizens generally did not pay much attention to this film festival far away in Europe. Unless a film won some sort of award, it would only attract widespread attention afterward.
But since most of the awards that could actually be won generally went to art films, the level of attention was only so-so.
Unless the director or lead actor of some film became famous one day, prompting everyone to look at their résumé.
Oh! So this director won an award at Cannes. So he's a Cannes Best Actor. No wonder he's so impressive!
Its main function was to add wings to a tiger, provided you were the tiger in the first place.
In summary, the Cannes Film Festival carried tremendous prestige and was an extremely impressive credential within the industry, but it did not attract much traffic.
That was because most of the people who commanded the greatest amount of traffic had little to do with Cannes awards. Forget winning awards—even getting nominated was a pipe dream for them.
By contrast, the red carpet, which had little to do with awards, sparked plenty of discussion every year.
There was even a term for it: "carpet stars." It was specifically used to mock the female celebrities who had no worthwhile works at all, yet dressed to the nines and went to the Cannes Red Carpet to pose and show off.
That said, mockery was one thing, but these people were never absent from the Cannes Red Carpet each year.
A few of them could always make it onto several trending searches. Then they would flock there again the following year. After all, even being infamous was still being famous.
Those with some sense of shame could still claim that they had been "invited by an endorsing brand," while those without any shame simply paid their own way there. After beautifully finishing their styling, they would return, issue a press release, and declare: "So-and-so stuns everyone on the Cannes Red Carpet."
And that was that.
As for the twenty films nominated each year, at least during the nomination stage, only a limited number of people paid attention to them.
At present, aside from the filmmakers who had submitted films, the people most concerned with which films had been nominated for Cannes this year were related media professionals in the industry.
For example, Wang Henshui, nicknamed Brother Shui, was a reporter for Movie Entertainment Weekly.
He was waiting for the news late into the night.
The Word document on his computer had already been open for a long time. Growing impatient, he yawned while idly tapping the ashtray beside him.
Every so often, he refreshed the official Cannes Film Festival website.
But just as he went to pour himself some water, an intern under him refreshed the page and got the results first.
"Brother Shui, the nominations have been announced. This year, two Chinese-language films were nominated for the main competition, one for the short-film competition, and another for the Un Certain Regard section."
"Two films in the main competition? Who's the other one besides Section Chief Zheng?"
Section Chief Zheng was not a government official. It was the nickname of a director named Zheng Kezhang, derived from a pun on his name.
He was an extremely famous art-film director in the industry and could almost be considered the top director of domestic art films. Naturally, he was also a regular at major film festivals.
This year, he had made a rather interesting martial-arts romance film. Given his reputation, he was practically guaranteed a nomination for this year's Cannes Film Festival.
So Wang Henshui was not surprised. Instead, he grew somewhat curious about the other nominated director.
I haven't heard of any other director in the film industry aiming for Cannes this year~
Before the intern could tell him, Wang Henshui, growing impatient, leaned over the computer and began reading. "'Whiplash,' directed by... Youlou Bai? Who's that?"
The Cannes website clearly had not prepared a Chinese version, which irritated Wang Henshui. Where did this unknown director come from?
He hated contestants who had not possessed even the slightest bit of fame before. He would have to go through the trouble of looking up their information later, and their résumés probably had nothing worth mentioning. But he could not skip the research, or he would have nothing to write about.
However, Wang Henshui failed to recognize the name, while the intern beside him had already widened his eyes.
"Holy crap, seriously?!"
"Hm? You know him?"
"Bai Youlou!"
The name was thunderously familiar.
Although Wang Henshui's workplace, Movie Entertainment Weekly, began with the word "film," the word "entertainment" in the middle also reflected the nature of their media outlet.
When there was film-related content to write about, they wrote about films and made it sound highbrow.
When there was not, they did pretty much the same things as gossip outlets. They had slightly more integrity, though, and did not exaggerate too much. They basically reported whatever they had.
As for Bai Youlou, that man had provided them with a considerable amount of material.
He had helped them complete quite a few of their KPIs.
However, when the name Bai Youlou became associated with the Cannes Film Festival, Wang Henshui also felt a sense of disillusionment.
He rubbed his eyes, pointed at the computer screen, and read the name once more.
That was right: Youlou Bai. Nothing wrong with it!
The intern's words confirmed it as well. "Brother Shui, Bai Youlou really did make a film. On that Talent Show that just aired, the film's name was printed on his clothes. Let me look it up! The film is called Whiplash! 'Whiplash' should be the English title. Literally translated, it means 'beating.'"
Wang Henshui fell into deep confusion. It was the first time in his career that he had felt the world was somewhat surreal.
For fuck's sake, how did an infamous fallen idol like you suddenly end up at Cannes?
How was he supposed to write this report?
He had no idea where to start!
Faced with the intern's expectant, questioning gaze, Wang Henshui did not hesitate for long before making up his mind.
"Just focus the report on Section Chief Zheng. Give Bai Youlou a little space and mention him in passing."
The intern nodded at first, then, displaying the recklessness of youth, added, "If Bai Youlou wins an award, then we..."
After saying that, he laughed at himself, and Wang Henshui laughed along with him.
He shook his head while laughing and casually made a bold prediction. Pointing at the computer in front of him, he said, "If he can win an award, I'll eat this computer!"
Uh... Was he really going to make such an absolute statement?
Although the intern was laughing, he still felt that something was off. He was neither a hater nor a fan of Bai Youlou, but he had heard the two songs Bai Youlou wrote on Talent Show.
The song sung by that bald man named Long Ziqiang did not really suit his tastes, but it was at least catchy and strangely addictive.
As for the one Bai Youlou sang himself, without the influence of any preconceived stance, he genuinely wanted to listen to it all the way through.
Bai Youlou, back when he had been an idol, had never possessed the talent for songwriting~
But seeing Wang Henshui's emphatically confident expression, the intern still gave him enthusiastic support and tossed all those wild, ridiculous thoughts out of his mind.
Even if Bai Youlou had some ability, could he really win an award at Cannes?
If he actually won one, it would practically be an insult to the film industry.
He was just an infamous fallen idol!
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