Chapter 587
The iff Awards represent not only a formal international foothold for Primeval Media, but also a new milestone in China’s film industry.
It means a lot.
It was also the result of a concerted effort by the entire company.
But it had been so easily wiped out.
The female secretary frowned: “Boss, even if they bought the judges, we have no proof, this kind of award without open selection voting is not absolutely fair in the first place.”
The judges also have their own preferences.
Like in the last iff Golden Awards selection, there were two films that had the power to win the Golden Awards, and in the end, because the judges preferred the first film
Speaking of this, the female secretary also hesitated: “Maybe, they didn’t buy it either, and that was the result.”
Ying Ziyi didn’t look up, her tone still light: “Just look and see.”
The female secretary froze.
Look at it?
How?
Ying Zidian pulled out a box from her phone and was about to enter the program when the WeChat message came first.
[Fu Yunshen]:
[video.mov][Fu Yunshen]: [recording.mp3
[Fu Yunshen]: Here you go.
Fu Yunshen’s computer skills had never been weaker than Qin Lingyan, the boss of the Hacker Alliance.
Otherwise, with ibi’s ability to pull hatred, the firewall would have been broken long ago.
Ying Ziyang opened the video and the recording, and after watching it, her eyes were slightly cold.
Even if the judges had voted for ‘Lost Memories’, it didn’t matter.
But now, it was clear that it was a direct change.
At this moment, Fu Yunshen’s message came again.
This time it was a voice.
His voice was laced with laughter, soft and slow.
“Shh, in a moment, look at the screen.”
Ying raised his eyebrows slightly and his gaze returned to the stage.
The award was now up to the prize of Best Director.
“The winner of this Best Director award is the director of Lost Memories, Dana Pazzi!” The host spoke, “Congratulations to our Miss Dana, it’s a great achievement for Miss Dana to be directing a film for the first time.”
Dana lifted her dress and gracefully walked up to the stage to receive her award.
“Oh, the last award is the much anticipated Best Film Award, the film that won the Best Film Award this time is -”
“The Lost Memories! Congratulations!” The MC was the first to applaud, “For the Best Film Award, our Chief Judge, Mr David, will present the award himself.”
Davey straightened his wardrobe and gave a smile, “It’s an honour to stand here on behalf of the jury and say a few words to you all.”
He held the microphone, “In all my years at iff, this is the first time I’ve held the position of General Jury. I’ve seen a lot of films and I have to admit that none of the films in competition this time are bad, they are all very good.”
“If there were ten for the first prize, you should all be in.”
“In the end we deliberated and went with ‘Lost Memories'” said David, “One might ask why ‘The Freshman’ didn’t even get a first prize.”
“Here’s the thing, we deliberated and decided that the acting was slightly too fierce and inferior in ‘The Freshman’ when the lead actor was split among three people, and ……”
[Alas, forget it, it’s okay to win a Best Screenplay award, at least it’s the first award for China.]
[Brother, don’t be discouraged, fight again next year!
[What does this chief jury mean? It’s not encouragement, it’s a complete disparagement, right?
[So you guys are blowing Shang Yaozhi’s acting skills every day, but you’re still being mocked internationally and can’t get out of the country, hahahahaha, you deserve it.
David was still touting Lost Memories and suppressing New Life when the image on the big screen changed.
The audience was stunned.
The judges on the judging panel also sat up straight and looked at the big screen in dismay.
This wasn’t in their meeting room?
The security footage began to play.
It was officially a conversation between one of the judges and David.
–But didn’t you say earlier that New Life was great?
–Yes, it was great, but look who made Lost Memories. Dana Pazzi, who among us has the guts to offend the Pazzi family? Who’s got the balls to offend the Pazzi family?
–What award doesn’t have shady practices now? It’s settled.
There was silence on the stage, and in the whole room, only David’s voice was left.
One word that fell clearly on everyone’s ears –
“And if we don’t even say anything, who will know?”
The manager jerked his head up, “Yaozhi!”
It turned out that it wasn’t Shang Yaozhi’s acting skills that were at fault, but because this selection was originally unfair.
David had given the award that originally belonged to Shang Yaozhi and The New Life to The Lost Memory!
Shang Yaozhi’s eyes sank, but he slowly breathed a sigh of relief as he smiled again, “That’s quite good, I have confidence in myself again.”
The agent moved his lips, “Yaozhi, you’ve always been great, don’t lose confidence in yourself.”
No one could be in the right frame of mind to be disparaged in such a public forum for an international award.
Shang Yaozhi smiled.
There was only one person who could do and dare to do such a thing, right?
Shang Yaozhi looked at the girl sitting in the VIP seat and fell into deep thought.
On the stage, David was stunned, simply in disbelief.
How could the CCTV footage from their conference room have appeared here?
And that wasn’t all.
Immediately after the video was played, there was a recording.
As soon as David listened, he could hear that it was the phone call he had made with Dana yesterday, and cold sweat instantly ran down his face.
Off to the side, Dana’s face also sank for a moment.
The latter was more important than winning the award or losing face.
Of course, it was best to have both.
Dana hadn’t given any thought to the fact that her deal with David would be blown out of proportion.
Who would know about such a thing?
And who could hack into her phone and steal her phone messages and recordings once they knew?
It was simply a case of not wanting to die.
More and more eyes converged on her, especially as there were quite a few noblewomen on the scene, all from this circle of O-continent’s high society.
They whispered and their eyes kept on Dana.
Dana’s face turned blue and extreme embarra*sment flooded through her.
She immediately stood up, turned around and walked outside.
Not wanting to stay a second longer.
Dana was the young lady of the Pazzi family, and the reporters didn’t dare to stop her even if they wanted to.
“Turn it off!” David took the walkie-talkie and shouted angrily into the background, “Turn it off! How do you do it?”
The backstage staff were also sweating profusely and fumbling: “Hugs, sorry Mr Davey, it’s out of our hands, we can’t turn it off.”
The voice continued.
“Yes, Miss Dana, don’t worry, First Light Media is a small company, they wouldn’t dare say anything and wouldn’t think I’d give you their prize.”
At this, the audience who had come to watch the scene completely exploded.
On the Chinese side of the broadcast, the netizens were also furious.
[Just like this, you still have the f*cking nerve to belittle Shang Yaozhi’s acting skills? Is Ning worthy?
[Great, great, great, First Light Media is a small studio, so you can just bully them, right? If the film “New Life” was made by Universal Pictures, the iff jury, you wouldn’t even dare to say a word [smile].
[The Pazzi family is great, their hands are so long, but sorry, you can’t control China’s affairs.
[I remember that iff is invested by the Laurent family, right? Is it possible that all the big families in O-continent are in cahoots and like to bully others so much?
Not many people in the outside world know that the Pazzi family and the Laurent family are feuding.
After all, since Cesar Laurent’s awakening, the Laurent family has been concentrating on development, and on the surface, the Pazzi family and the Laurent family do not cross each other’s water.
Those who have studied the history of that part of the o-continent have not at all lumped the situation of a few centuries ago with the present either.
The audience at the bottom was talking, and journalists from all over the world, with their camera gear, kept pressing the shutter.
It was all about David’s wretchedness and impotent rage.
This was a really big headline.
It wouldn’t take the next day for the iff Awards to be faked, it would be all over the international film and television world that night.
It’s an award that comes out of the circle and even those who don’t follow film have heard of it.
David was in a cold sweat.
He roared and told backstage to simply cut the electricity and the images on the big screen finally disappeared.
Before David could let go of this breath, someone walked up to the podium.
The reporters could recognise that it was the Chinese actress who had just received the Best Actress award, Xie Manyu.
Xie Manyu was also the first Chinese to take home the award.
Only the film was made by Universal Pictures, which is not counted as a Chinese film.
“Sorry, this award, I won’t accept it.” Xie Man Yu shoved the trophy directly into David’s arms and smiled faintly, “Because I doubt your impartiality, quite afraid that I this award is also you fear Universal Pictures and then write my name on it.”
“If I accept it, I’m also acting inappropriately, and I hope it really is my acting that is worthy of this award.”
That one statement made the judges on the jury sit up and take notice.
One of the judges stood up and busily took two steps forward, “Miss Xie, we can all guarantee that your award is absolutely free of any water, and the role you played has been carefully discussed by us
In contrast, Matt Bilic was embarra*sed.
He was still holding his Golden Award trophy in his hand when he turned his head and met Shang Yaozhi’s eyes.
Shang Yaozhi just sat there quietly, without any complaints.
Matt Bilic took this award very hot.
Xie Manyu didn’t pay any attention to the judges and went straight off the stage and walked over to the girl: “Boss.”
Ying looked at her, “That award is yours.”
“It’s fine, I don’t want it.” Xie Manyu shrugged, “I’m from First Light Media, one glory, one loss, I don’t think much of awards anyway.”
She said, bending down, “Boss, you saved my life, I’m only on your side in such matters.”
Ying Zigui looked startled.
Xie Manyu turned her head: “Xiao Shang, you’re still young, this year’s Golden Image Award, it’s better not to win it.”
Shang Yaozhi also smiled: “What Mr Xie said is true.”
At least this time he could be sure that it was not his acting skills that were at fault.
He was relieved.
It really didn’t matter if he won the award or not.
The scene was in complete chaos.
A few daring journalists were already running up to the stage with their equipment on their shoulders, microphones being pa*sed around to David.
“Mr. David, you are blatantly cheating, may I ask if you are such a power-shy person?”
“Mr Davey, the iff has lost its original impartiality, what if no more studios send films to the iff in the future?”
David’s face was almost dripping with embarra*sment, his teeth creaking.
The iff Awards had been around for over a hundred years, once a year, more than a hundred times.
It’s not as if there hasn’t been a shady past, and the judges are all aware of it.
That’s why David gave all the major awards for The Freshman to The Lost Memories this time he took office.
But still, it’s the only time that things will actually blow up before the awards ceremony is over.
How on earth did it come out?
Who had the guts to do that?
David hadn’t figured it out until now.
But no matter what, this one hundred and twenty-third edition of the iff Golden Awards had become a straight up joke.
The audience had all dispersed long ago.
The trophy that Xie Manyu had placed at the judges’ place seemed to be mocking something.
Clare was still slumped in the soft chair.
He looked up in a daze, looking at the girl’s cold face, which had become bitterly white little by little.
Time Media had produced many international film stars and actresses, and now these people had left Time Media to set up their own businesses, but they would come back to help out with anything the company had to do.
But this time, Times Media has offended even the film stars and actresses it has trained.
Who would dare to act in Time Media’s films again?
But how did it come out?
Ying raised her eyes, faintly: “As I said, this is just the beginning.”
Originally, she had a more elaborate plan for Time Media.
Now she couldn’t use it.
David finally got rid of the reporters.
He quickly stepped off the stage, looked at the girl and sneered, “You won’t be leaving Fei Leng Cui unharmed!”
A Chinese showbiz company, but so openly disgraced the Laurent family, could the Laurent family let them go?
Chapter 588
Now that the reporters are gone and the story has blown up, David has lost all his face as a chief judge.
He was too lazy to maintain any more poise.
However, David found that once he said this, the First Light Media team did not react too much.
Only the manager frowned.
Ying nodded slightly: “Are you talking about, the Laurent family?”
“Mr David, you are really good at throwing dirty water.” The secretary laughed coldly, “You are the one who made the improper deal, and you are the one who disgraced the Laurent family, who will they not let go?”
Hearing this, David also laughed, “Don’t you Chinese have an idiom called affinity?”
“This is O Chau, who is close and who is distant, who is superior and who is inferior, is it still more than understandable?”
It’s a double standard for people to be biased towards their own people.
How can the Laurent family be biased to China?
It’s surprising that these Easterners don’t even understand this.
No wonder they were stupid.
David coldly grabbed his mobile phone: “I’ll call the Laurent family right now, just wait!”
Ying Zidian remained indifferent: “You call.”
David’s breath was clogged in his chest, so angry that his heart hurt.
He didn’t want to stay for a second and angrily headed out: “Hey, hello ……”
The agent faltered and patted Shang Yaozhi’s shoulder: “Yaozhi, is it possible that Miss Ying and the Luo, Luo Lang family are really that something ……”
Shang Yaozhi thought for a moment, “Do you remember that I bought a carload of jade from the Zhong Group.”
The broker nodded his head.
Ying Zidian saved Shang Yaozhi’s life, a cart of jade stones was nothing.
Shang Yaozhi smiled, “At that time, I had a chat with Miss Ying’s grandfather, and the old man proudly told me that Miss Ying had even penetrated inside the Luolang family.”
This was certainly Master Zhong’s bragging at the time, but now it seemed obvious that it had really gone askew.
The agent breathed a sigh of relief.
It didn’t really matter whether they won the prize or not, they couldn’t cause any trouble for Ying Ziyi.
Not many of the nobles in O Chau have access to the Laurent family.
The Laurent family represents the pinnacle of power on Continent O.
And looking at the faces of the crowd, Claire thought again of the car he had seen in the festival infield that day.
At the time, Dana had asked him if he was sure, and he hadn’t given it much thought.
But now that he thought about it. It really did seem to be the Laurent family’s logo!
No, but if Ying really knew someone from the Laurent family, could they not find out?
There were absolutely no more than five young masters and young ladies of the Laurent family who had absolute say and status in O-continent, and none of them had any connection with China.
Moreover, if Ying had such connections, would she still be a showbiz boss in China?
It was a thankless task, far less stressful than being a top executive at Universal Pictures.
Claire didn’t want to believe it anyway, and couldn’t figure it out.
But whether or not Ying had anything to do with the Laurent family, Time Media had suffered a loss of vitality this time.
When a company loses its credibility, and in an international context like this. It is indeed the beginning of its demise.
Claire had just stepped out of the ballroom with heavy steps when her phone rang frantically.
“Boss, something’s happened, our share price has plummeted, it’s down three points.”
Before Claire could speak, the secretary’s voice on the other side sounded even more anxious: “And several first-rate actors say they want to cancel their contracts with us for fear of damage to their reputations!”
It was very rare to be called a first-rate actor internationally.
Claire’s eyes went black.
It was over, this was going to be the end.
**
Sure enough, it didn’t take long at all.
That night.
The revelation that the iff Awards had been faked hit the headlines in every country.
The netizens in China were furious.
[Seeing that China is easy to bully, right? What do you mean, it’s enough for your country to win a Best Screenplay Award, what, and be grateful to you?
Is no one paying attention to who put the CCTV footage and call recordings in?
A packet of chilli sticks and a bet on winning.
It’s true, but in a foreign country, it’s not your home turf, and First Light Media doesn’t have any power, so there won’t be many people working with First Light Media in the future, and anyone has to be wary of whether their calls will be blown up.
And that’s really true.
Because this has happened before.
An international film queen found out her husband was cheating on her and, in anger, exposed a recording of a conversation with him and a third party.
The husband’s reputation was lost, but he came from an o-continent aristocracy and with the power of his family he simply banned the international film queen.
No one dared to say anything at all.
If First Light Media were to be suppressed by the Laurent and Pazzi families together, even the venus group would not be able to protect it.
While the country was worried about this, Ying Ziji slept well at night with a real human pillow.
The next morning, Fu Yunshen went to the venus headquarters.
At noon, First Light Media gathered at Fei Leng Cui for lunch.
“I’ll stay over here for a few more days, you guys go back first.” Ying leaned back in her chair, “There’s a special plane to keep you safe.”
Having crossed paths many times, she knew the Pazzi family’s style all too well.
By any means necessary.
The female secretary nodded and suddenly spoke, “Boss, the Laurent family has made a move.”
Ying Ziyi looked up, “Hm?”
This was something she hadn’t said to Cesar at all.
Because there was no need to.
The female secretary was about to speak when the door of the compartment was slammed open.
It was David and a team of mercenaries who entered.
David sneered, “That’s them, take them to Laurent Castle!”
Everyone at the table paled.
David looked at their expressions with pain, “I told you, the Laurent family will not spare you.”
“Not ……” the female secretary gave him a strange look, “Are you not watching the news yet?”
David froze, “What news?”
The female secretary snorted, “Read it yourself!”
Just a moment ago, new news appeared on the extranet.
Weibo was synced and the hot search quickly rose to number one.
#LaurentFamily, iff
Here is the translated tweet.
[The Laurent family has announced that it is overhauling the iff Film Festival and the Golden Awards, dismissing this year’s general jury and strictly forbidding any future occurrences.
As the most prestigious film award in the world, the iff welcomes scrutiny and reports from all sides.
In response to this egregious phenomenon, the Laurent family announces a billion dollar investment in First Light Media and an apology to First Light Media.
[The Laurent family gives a big hand!
[The first family’s style is different.] [The first family’s style is different.]
Ying Shen, you’re rich, aren’t you happy?
Ying Zidian finished reading: “……”
It’s a problem to throw money away at the drop of a hat.
But in Xizhe’s vault, she has half of the gold.
It’s still her money after all the math.
Now she finally got a taste of what it was like to be a rich woman.
David was struck by lightning as he took a few steps back: “That’s impossible!”
Why should he invest in First Light Media when he could just be dismissed?
Are the Laurent family crazy?
To be able to use such a large sum of money, the council of elders would have to vote in full.
Not even the head of the family was qualified to do so!
What was this?
David was in a cold sweat, and this time he was completely panicked.
He just wanted to get out of here, but then the door kicked open and a team of men came in.
The Laurent family’s escort.
They were a far higher rank than the mercenaries David had paid for.
The captain of the guard gave David a faint look and pointed his finger: “It’s him, take him away!”
**
David was taken directly to Laurent Castle by the escort and sent to an interrogation room.
Such a big move naturally alerted the other members of the Laurent family and the elders’ group.
They were all a little confused when they realised that such a big deal was being made over just a golden statue award.
Even the Third Elder was not sure how this matter had alerted that supreme power holder.
But it was not for them, as subordinates, to ask questions about such matters.
But when they thought about it, the person in power was coming out, so naturally they had to establish authority.
The iff was originally invested by the person in power, and when such a thing like shady business appeared, could it be tolerated?
The third elder stroked his beard and thought to himself, “I wonder what the person in power really looks like.
Until Jobe came over.
The Third Elder’s eyes lit up and immediately called out to him, “Butler Jobe, did the master say when he would officially meet with us?”
Everyone knew that Jobe was the spokesman of the person in power outside.
The selection of the ruler’s personal servants was harsh and the elders wanted to send their children to the heart of the castle.
“It should be soon.” Jobe smiled and lowered his voice, “By the way, Third Elder, if you want to do something for your master, gather more information on the noble ladies, and photographs.”
“The master may have been badly hit and wants to get married, and he really can’t be persuaded.”
Third Elder: “????”
Inside the house.
David’s scalp tightened and his body went cold.
The door was finally pushed open and a light shone in.
Davey looked up, his eyes holding a few hopeful moments.
Jobe smiled, his eyes compa*sionate: “Do you know what Miss Ying is?”