Chapter 1636 Shining Stars?

Pei Qian felt a thump in his heart.

This was bad; the worst-case scenario had occurred.

He hadn't expected this movie to actually win the Golden Lion Award.

Pei Qian hadn't had high hopes for this movie, after all, the idea for it had just popped into his head. He simply wanted to portray Tengda Group as a villain.

However, in the process of fleshing it out, the two heads in charge, Zhu Xiaoce and Yu Fei, had each offered their own perspectives, extending Pei Qian's initial concept.

Then, Pei Qian had flipped the script on the movie and game ideas, and just like that, they had started filming very hastily.

He hadn't expected that this movie, which he'd made so casually, would actually win the highest award at an international film festival.

It was absurd.

Although this was the seventh time a domestic film had won the Golden Lion Award, and it wasn't exactly a historic breakthrough, it was still the first time in five years that they had won it again.

Compared to other film festivals, the Venice Film Festival was more partial to Asian films, and especially favored Chinese-language films.

That was why many Chinese film directors had won this honor before.

But since 2007, there seemed to have been a break in this award. Even the judges of the Venice Film Festival had expressed regret over the gradual decline of Chinese-language films.

Therefore, the fact that *The Future You Choose* had once again won the Golden Lion Award was a significant encouragement for the domestic film industry.

In addition, the fact that Lu Zhiyao had won the Best Actor award was also something worth writing about.

As the benchmark for the acting skills of the new generation of powerful male actors, Lu Zhiyao had been constantly striving to break through himself. Many viewers had grown up with him through movie after movie, witnessing his increasingly exquisite acting skills, and giving him more and more attention and support.

This Venice Film Festival was naturally a win-win situation for Lu Zhiyao, a definite peak in his life.

But what left Pei Qian speechless was Zhu Xiaoce's acceptance speech on stage.

What did he mean by, "President Pei gave this movie spirit and flesh?" It was as if this movie was entirely his fault.

The key was that Zhu Xiaoce's acceptance speech at such an important event had placed President Pei in such a high position that it was hard for netizens not to make associations.

It was foreseeable that before long, online discussions about this movie and the Venice Film Festival would sweep in like a tidal wave.

"I haven't even seen this movie yet, and it's already won two major awards."

"Where can I even complain?"

Pei Qian felt despair. During the filming of this movie, Pei Qian had been very busy and hadn't been able to pay much attention to it. After the filming and editing were completed, Zhu Xiaoce had taken the movie directly to the Venice Film Festival, so Pei Qian hadn't had time to watch it.

As a result, before he even knew what this movie was really like, the bad news had already arrived. It was a truly sad story.

Pei Qian responded to the good news from Zhu Xiaoce, Lu Zhiyao, and others very perfunctorily. Then, he started checking the discussions among netizens.

…

"Feihuang Workshop is awesome! The Golden Lion Award, this is a very prestigious international award."

"Yeah, although the Venice Film Festival is a bit biased towards Chinese-language films, being able to win this award definitely relies on hard power. What's more, it won both the Golden Lion Award and the Best Actor award, which are both weighty awards. This movie is very much worth looking forward to."

"When will it be released? Does anyone know what kind of movie it is?"

"Not too sure, the crew is doing a good job of keeping things under wraps."

"The movie is called *The Future You Choose*, and it's said to be a cyberpunk theme."

"Is the cyberpunk theme similar to *A Beautiful Tomorrow*? Then why not make a second *Beautiful Tomorrow* movie?"

"I'm not sure, but judging from the current awards situation, this movie should be better than *A Beautiful Tomorrow*. Everyone can look forward to it."

"Director Zhu Xiaoce said in his acceptance speech that President Pei gave this movie soul and flesh. I understand soul, it should mean that the initial inspiration for the idea came from President Pei, but what does he mean by flesh?"

"It seems to mean that some real-life events provided some details or plot improvements for this film."

"Is it related to the Anti-Tengda Alliance incident?"

"Possibly. After all, movie stories originate from reality and are higher than reality, right? The Anti-Tengda Alliance incident caused a lot of commotion before, so it's reasonable to take some material from it and put some content into the movie to show it."

"Then this movie should be satirizing those companies in the Anti-Tengda Alliance. I wonder if we can see similar companies appear in the movie?"

"By the way, isn't it said that the movie *My Assets* is also about to be released? Didn't it participate in this Venice Film Festival? If it did, it could at least win the Best Screenplay award, after all, the original work is so wonderfully written."

"It seems like it didn't participate, I don't know what the consideration was. The situation of this movie is even more mysterious than *The Future You Choose*. So far, almost no news has come out."

"But no matter what, this month's movie scene is a gathering of heroes, worth looking forward to."

The netizens were all enthusiastically discussing it, and they were also very much looking forward to the release of excellent movies recently.

Pei Qian felt very sad.

With this kind of attention, the box office of *The Future You Choose* when it's released will definitely not be low.

He could only hope that after the movie is released, it will gradually start high and end low, and earn less at the box office.

Pei Qian found that in the comments, there were also many people discussing another domestic movie called *My Assets*. It seemed that many viewers also had high hopes for this movie, after all, it was adapted from a classic original work by a top domestic science fiction novelist.

Many people called this month's movie schedule Shining Stars, and it all depended on which movie, *The Future You Choose* or *My Assets*, could win.

Pei Qian didn't pay too much attention to the movie *My Assets*, because at first glance, the name didn't seem very good.

Moreover, Pei Qian felt that he was a bit unlucky. Every movie that competed with Feihuang Workshop before, he would pay attention to it, and it would explode and die. Even Hollywood blockbusters couldn't withstand his poison milk, let alone a small domestic movie.

After all, *The Future You Choose* had already won the Golden Lion Award. Under these circumstances, it was still very difficult for an ordinary domestic science fiction movie to shake it.

Pei Qian fell into a state of resignation and could only wait silently.

According to the original plan, the latter half of this month would first see the release of the game, and then the movie would be released.

After all, the release time of the game was relatively free, and it wouldn't hurt to adjust it. But once the release date of the movie was set, it couldn't be easily changed.

Pei Qian silently prayed: He only hoped that the game and the movie would both be acclaimed but not popular. It's okay if the reputation is high, but don't make too much money.

…

At the same time, in Shanghai.

Nie Yuncheng and Lu Xiaoping of Fanqi Media were having a secret talk in the conference room.

The news that *The Future You Choose* had successfully won the Best Actor and Best Film Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival naturally reached the ears of Nie Yuncheng and Lu Xiaoping as soon as possible.

For various reasons, the movie *My Assets* did not participate in the Venice Film Festival.

One reason was that the director didn't want to go.

This director was a very capable and very individual director. He felt that the overall core of the story of the movie *My Assets* was still aimed at domestic audiences.

Even if he participated in the film festival, the results would not be too good, and he would probably not win any awards. So there was no need to bother, and he would put all his energy into the domestic market.

Lu Xiaoping also felt that this could create a paralyzing effect on President Pei, so that President Pei would not realize the danger posed by this movie.

What's more, they had previously thought that it would be difficult for *The Future You Choose* to win the Golden Lion Award. If it only won a small award, it wouldn't really have much of an impact.

Now the situation had suddenly become confusing.

Seeing that the release date was coming soon, Liu Xiaoping and Nie Mingsheng were both a little nervous. After all, they both knew that the success or failure of this movie would greatly affect whether their final strategy could succeed.

"President Lu, what do you think about these two movies?" Nie Yuncheng asked.

Lu Xiaoping didn't panic, but said calmly: "Although President Pei's movie has successfully won the Golden Lion Award, it is a small danger for us, but I think the overall situation has not undergone any fundamental changes."

"I am very confident in the hard power of the movie *My Assets*. Although the movie *The Future You Choose* can win awards internationally, it may not be able to win in terms of word-of-mouth and box office among domestic audiences."

"Besides, there is a very important point."

"This time, President Pei's movie winning the award has exposed a very critical piece of information to us. If we can make good use of this, maybe we can find a key breakthrough to victory."

Nie Yuncheng raised his eyebrows: "Is that so? I'd like to hear more about it."

Lu Xiaoping explained: "Director Zhu Xiaoce let something slip during the award ceremony."

"He said that the real events that happened in reality gave this movie flesh and blood, which means that some elements directly taken from reality appeared in some of the movie's plots."

"Combining this with the fact that this movie is a cyberpunk theme, then we can roughly guess some things."

Nie Yuncheng suddenly realized: "You mean that this movie filmed many companies in the Anti-Tengda Alliance. And made some allusions to reality?"

Lu Xiaoping nodded. "Combining this with the name of this movie – *The Future You Choose*, isn't this obvious?"

"President Pei obviously regards this movie as an important part of the public opinion war with our Anti-Tengda Alliance. This name is an insinuation to all the netizens and audiences: Choosing Tengda is choosing the right future."

"Then in the movie, we, as the enemies of Tengda Group, will naturally appear in a negative role."

"Can't we make a fuss about this?"