It is true that "regret" is a topic that cannot be avoided after many awards seasons, but the regret of the Golden Rooster is often a little helpless. Since the Golden Rooster Awards were held every two years in the previous few years, some excellent films that should have been commended that year can only be placed on the same stage as some hot movies in the coming year. "God" missed the "best feature film", which many practitioners call the legacy of the film festival.
But such "regrets" will become history and no longer happen after this year.
At the opening ceremony of the 28th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival on the evening of November 19, Huang Kunming, Minister of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China announced that in order to comply with the important decision of the rapid development of Chinese film, the Golden Rooster Award, which was selected once every two years, will be changed from this year onwards. once a year. At a forum a few days later, Xu Zheng publicly expressed his support for this: "It is done once a year because the amount is enough... The Chinese director should receive the Golden Rooster award, which should be the same as the (American) Oscar. The Golden Rooster should With this status, because Chinese films have such a capacity, we should also pursue that height."
In fact, the change in award selection rules is just a profile of the changes in the Golden Rooster Awards. Before the award ceremony, Poison Eyes felt the new vitality of this veteran film festival in Xiamen, the host city of the Golden Rooster Awards.
With the participation of young stars such as Wang Junkai, Yi Qianqianxi, Zhou Dongyu, Xiamen Airport has become a gathering place for fans to greet the arrival of idols, and the airport arrival gate has also set up a film festival check-in desk to provide guidance for participating guests Service; in the restaurants around the Tianyuan Hotel at the main venue of the film festival, the white-collar workers in the nearby office building to work for lunch all discussed the upcoming awards ceremony; on the day of the awards ceremony, the "Golden Rooster Award Ceremony" and "Envy of the Golden Rooster Award Security Check" Topics such as "Miss Sister", the names of celebrities such as "Deng Chao, Sun Li, Huang Bo, Hu Ge, Liu Shishi," and keywords for awards such as Best Actress and Best Photography have firmly occupied the hot search on Weibo-for many years. Once, the Golden Rooster Award occupies such an important position in public perception.
In addition to appearance, more important is the transformation of the kernel. During the few days in Xiamen, Poison Eye participated in many forum activities and interviewed several Chinese filmmakers who visited Xiamen. In these exchanges, we can clearly feel the changes: poster design and art that are completely different from the past. The “Internet Night” and 5G broadcast of market conditions co-organized by the Federation and Tencent Pictures... The Golden Rooster Award is trying to become more “younger” and is trying to adjust the agenda, change the aesthetic style, and introduce new technologies. The cultural trend of thought and audience preferences are in line.
38 years ago, as the beginning of the new wave of Chinese film creation, the Golden Rooster Award issued its first cry; 38 years ago, due to the changes in the context of film creation and the film industry itself, the Golden Rooster Award has also fallen into confusion or even a short period of time. "Closed"; 38 years later, when Chinese cinema once again ushered in a brand new era, the 38-year-old middle-aged golden rooster took the initiative to turn around. Will it be the beginning of the rooster's re-cry?
The golden rooster's first cry
"In those years, we Watching an open-air movie, when it rained heavily, many people stood there with umbrellas and watched them. They saw the crowds in the past, and no one left halfway.” In Xiamen, a senior movie fan recalled her memory to Poison Eye. Li said in the 1980s, "Think about it now, that spectacular scene almost doesn't exist today."
is a special age.
After experiencing an era of relative lack of material and spirit, the Chinese people's demand for movies has reached an unprecedented height. According to data, in 1979, the Chinese film market set an unprecedented record of 28 movies watched by the whole nation and 29.3 billion viewers nationwide. (Click here to read: Main theme movies are selling well because young people are more patriotic?); and in 1980-1984 , The national average output of movies is only about 120, but the total number of viewers each year is about 25 billion. Movies have become an important part of people’s life and entertainment.Minute.
Speaking of those years, Zhang Yimou once described four as "hot blood" (click here to read: Zhang Yimou looking for Zhang Yimou): "The curiosity of the whole people (very strong), the reform and opening up has just begun, and I want to see and understand the world. , In turn, understand yourself. Watching film festivals, watching art exhibitions and squeezing the subway, the front chest is attached to the back, the whole people are talking about culture. Like today, they are talking about the box office."
is also in such a way of extreme film culture In the age of admiration, facing film practitioners with strong creative desires and eager and curiosity audiences, in order to recognize and reward outstanding film works and film workers, and more thoroughly activate the vitality and creativity of the film market, the Golden Rooster Award It was born-in 1981, the first Golden Rooster Award hosted by the Chinese Film Association was announced in Hangzhou, and the original positioning of the Golden Rooster Award was "the highest award in the professional selection of the Chinese film industry." The reason why
was named "Golden Rooster" was explained in many materials because it was the year of the rooster in the lunar calendar. But the screenwriter Song Fangjin mentioned in a video program a few days ago that there are actually other considerations: "The concept of chicken should first be taken from "The Book of Songs". The chicken brings a kind of excitement. He Liming’s intention, and later there was the story of Zuti in the "Tong Jian of Zi Zhi", which is to hear the chicken and dance... (through these allusions) as a call and a compliment to Chinese movies."
The Golden Rooster Award, which was born under this background, represents a "call" for film innovation and breakthrough, and this is clearly reflected in the award of the first Golden Rooster Award.
In 1980, the movie "Lushan Love" was released. This love movie not only included the first kiss scene in the history of new Chinese cinema, but also the actress Zhang Yu boldly appeared in a swimsuit. In an era when the thinking was relatively conservative, such a breakthrough caused a huge sensation at the time. Many people said that the content was "indecent", and even Zhang Yu himself suspended filming several times because of his shyness.
But when the movie was released, a large number of audiences walked into the theater, wanting to see these scenes they had never seen before. At the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony in 1981, Zhang Yu became the first "Golden Rooster Award Queen" in history with the film and "Bashan Night Rain". In her award certificate, the organizing committee wrote: "(Zhang Yu's) performance is meticulous and natural, showing gratifying artistic talent."
Zhang Yu's award broke many stereotypes of that era, and the Golden Rooster Award was also recognized. It demonstrates the official recognition of this creative change-the characters in Chinese movies should no longer be facialized and "absolutely correct", but more innovative and closer to the preferences and lives of the general public.
started with Zhang Yu, and the screen image in domestic movies has changed drastically: Liu Xiaoqing, Siqin Gaowa, Pan Hong, and Chen Chong, collectively referred to as the "Five Golden Flowers" with Zhang Yu, all became hot stars at the time. They starred in "Man to Middle Age", "Camel Xiangzi", "Furong Town" and others have won the Golden Rooster Awards in the following years; and for male stars, there have also been "cream niches" like Tang Guoqiang, although This kind of image has also been subject to a lot of controversy (click here to read: "Little Fresh Meat" Transformation, a problem that lasted for 40 years), but it does represent the transformation of Chinese movies.
In addition to the transformation of characters, another wave comes from the innovation of creative thought. Shortly after the birth of the
Golden Rooster Award, a group of young talents represented by Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige graduated from professional film academies and were assigned to various places in the motherland to start film creation. Although films such as "One and Eight" led by the fifth generation were controversial at one time, they still couldn't stop the arrival of the new era. As the 1985 "Contemporary Film" commented on them, (they) "accepted the prevailing Western philosophy and aesthetics at that time, and formed new values and aesthetics", "like the young grass after a cold winter, fresh and unique". After
's short-term "testing" and tempering, the fifth-generation directors began to shine in the film industry at a speed beyond the recognition of their predecessors. In the late 1980s and 1990s, Chinese-language films represented by Zhang Yimou's "Red Sorghum" and Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" have been "overcoming all obstacles" at major film festivals, becoming the most shining stars.
At the Golden Rooster Awards, the fifth generation of directors is also the most eye-catching existence: in 1993, Zhang Yimou's "A Lawsuit Against Qiu Ju" sent Gong Li to the Golden Rooster Award.In 1994, "Back to Back Face to Face" directed by Huang Jianxin won the Best Director Award at the 15th Chinese Film Golden Rooster Awards; Zhang Yimou won 1999 and "My Father and Mother" with "No One Less" and "My Father and Mother" respectively. Best Director at the Golden Rooster Awards in 2000; Chen Kaige also won the title of Best Director at the 22nd Golden Rooster Awards in 2002 with "Being with You"...
Golden Rooster first screamed, and Chinese movies finally made their voices. .
"Golden Rooster Turning"
In 2003, the 23rd Golden Rooster Award for Best Director was once again captured by Zhang Yimou, but this time the "Hero", which helped him win the award, was compared with the previous "Qiuju" and "My Father". "Mother" and so on are completely different. "Hero" is a thoroughly commercial blockbuster. Once it was released in 2002, it triggered a movie-watching boom among the people. With a total box office of 248 million yuan, it became the pioneering work that opened the era of domestic commercial blockbusters. The advent of
"Hero" is a necessity. As early as 1993, the radio, film and television departments have successively issued notices and documents such as "Several Opinions on Deepening the Reform of the Current Film Distribution Mechanism", and "Notice on Further Deepening the Reform of the Film Distribution Mechanism" to provide guidance on film production, distribution, and screening in China. The system is adjusted and private capital is allowed to enter the film and television industry. Commercialization has naturally become a topic that cannot be avoided.
But in contrast to the wave of commercialization, it is actually a speculation about whether a film should be "commercial" or "art".
"Chinese movies were kidnapped by the box office, including myself. We made a lot of various movies. We have to test the waters and walk on two legs. In addition to feelings, we also need quality commercial movies. Go to occupy this position." Zhang Yimou himself admitted that he has been involved in the box office since "Hero", and this kind of involvement is something he must face. But on the other hand, Wu Tianming, the "teacher" of him and Chen Kaige and others, "has always been indifferent to such works," and the industry's criticism of commercial films often appears.
The industry has not yet been able to reach a consensus on the issue of "business and art", the Golden Rooster Award, which represents the authoritative opinions of the industry, will naturally have a lot of "confusion". In an era when Chinese films paid more attention to ideology and artistry, the choice of the Golden Rooster Award was often in line with outside expectations. However, since the commercialization wave in the 1990s, the ownership of the Golden Rooster Award began to be controversial.
In the paper "A Glimpse of the Evolution of Mainstream Movies from the Best Feature Film of the Golden Rooster Award", the author Yang Xue pointed out that in the film "ideological, artistic and appreciative", the selection criteria of the Golden Rooster award often squeeze the "appreciation" The marginal position of the Golden Rooster Award, especially the awards of "Jiao Yulu" and "Kong Fansen" at the end of the last century, is the performance of the Golden Rooster Award with ideological standards as the primary criterion.
In order to ensure the artistry while also taking care of commercial films, starting from the end of the last century, the Golden Rooster Award jury had to use the "double yolk egg" rule to balance the two directions of art and market-for several consecutive years , The Golden Rooster Award for best actor, actress, director and other important awards have two winners, and this method has continued until recent years. Although
"double yolk eggs" is a good compromise, it also eliminates the authority of the Golden Rooster Award to a large extent. In addition, there were as many as 44 awards in the name of "China", "National" and "China". In order to ensure the credibility of the awards, the Central Propaganda Department promulgated the "Administrative Measures for the Evaluation of National Literary Press and Publication Awards" in 2005. , Stipulates that the national literature and art press and publication awards will be "slim down."
In this round of reforms, the Shanghai International Film Festival and other influential domestic film festivals have all been downgraded to local awards, and many awards have even become history. The Golden Rooster Award and the Hundred Flowers Award, which represents the opinions of the public, were held every two years and held alternately-"Film Literature" once published an article saying that due to the sluggish performance of domestic film works at that time, the Hundred Flower Award and the Golden Rooster Award were held every other year. The awards are adjusted in a rational and regular manner.
At the beginning of this century, because the domestic film industry as a whole is still in its infancy, no matter the total annual box office, the number of movie viewers, or the number of outstanding movies each year, they cannot be compared with today, sometimes two or three years later, There have not been too many outstanding and recognized outstanding films. For this reason, although such a reform is helpless, it can be regarded as "reasonable."
However, after 2012, Chinese movies began to enter a high-speedDuring the development period, more and more high-quality movies began to emerge, and the box office growth rate of domestic movies can be described as rapid. In this process, the boundaries between commerce and art seem to be constantly being wiped out. The hot-selling films such as "Fang Hua" and "I'm Not the God of Medicine" in these years have all been both artistic and at the same time. Recognized by the market. Because of this change, the adjustment of the Golden Rooster Award more than ten years ago has become a bit "outdated" for
. When Deng Chao contributed a performance called "the most exciting since his career" in "Scorching Sun" in 2015, the award for this performance only came in 2017, but when he won the 31st Golden Rooster Award At the time of the best actor trophy, many viewers had already forgotten how he played in "Scorching Sun".
In response, Rao Shuguang, secretary general of the Chinese Film Association, once wrote in the China Press, Publication, Radio and Television News in 2018: “The Golden Rooster Award is selected once every two years, and the lag is very obvious and prominent. The ability to guide the discourse and its discourse The right is greatly restricted. More importantly, this structural contradiction seems to be insoluble in a short period of time.”
And film scholar and Ph.D. Cozine also pointed out in a recent article that the Oscars can be successful. Credit to Oscar for successfully mastering a key word of contemporary information-"timeliness". But in the stage of rapid development of Chinese movies, Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers are in "a relatively absent position", giving people the feeling of "playing and singing". Even though Chinese films are still in the developing stage, there are still 8,900 films every year, and nominations are selected from nearly 2,000 films. Firstly, the project is huge, and secondly, many films that were regarded as masterpieces in the past, may be due to the industry in the coming year. Developed and "outdated".
If things go on like this, is the Golden Rooster still important to Chinese films?
The Golden Rooster is reborn?
"The Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival is a major event in the film industry. From this year on, the Golden Rooster Award will be selected once a year." After the opening ceremony of
on November 19, The tradition of holding the Golden Rooster Awards every two years will officially become history. "This is great news for filmmakers. Everyone present was very excited!" a senior producer at the opening ceremony said to Dumo. "The Chinese film market has become the second largest market in the world. It would be too untimely to award this veteran and official film award to be held every two years." The industry has long been waiting for the adjustment of the Golden Rooster Award. In more than ten years, the total box office of the domestic film market has soared from 2 billion in 2005 to 60.6 billion in 2018, a 30-fold increase; at the same time, "Nezha: The Devil Boy Comes into the World" and "Wandering Earth" 》 And other large-scale works that have opened up new fields and sold 4 billion at the same time; and young film creators have shown increasing enthusiasm and investment in films, forming the fresh and active blood of Chinese films-available in In the Mainland, there is not a sufficiently authoritative award to commend and encourage them. Since
is also the third-largest Chinese film in the Hong Kong Film Awards, it has more stringent requirements for registration (click here to read: Farewell, Hong Kong Films), and many mainland movies are not for this. Therefore, for a long time in the past, The Golden Horse Award awarded in Taiwan has become an important benchmark for measuring the quality and overall influence of Chinese-language films and actors.
However, in recent years, the Golden Horse Awards have gradually been mixed with many elements other than movies, and as a result, they have parted ways with mainland movies this year. Many heavyweight films and filmmakers have announced that they will be absent from this year's Golden Horse Awards. As soon as the news came out, many eyes in the industry once again focused on the Golden Rooster Award: at such a special time node, can the Golden Rooster Award become a symbol of mainland Chinese movies again?
June 1 this year. It was officially announced that the 28th China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival will be held in Xiamen from November 19th to 23rd, which means that the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony will collide with the 56th China Taiwan Film Golden Horse Awards on November 23rd. . Whether it was intentional or unintentional, the topic of "Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival hitting the Golden Horse Awards" instantly appeared on Weibo hot searches and became the focus of attention.
When the initial enthusiasm passed, some confusion and anxiety also followed. How should the Golden Rooster Award, which has long been out of touch with public opinion and mainstream audiences, return to the center of the stage? A typical event is that during the entire summer vacation this year In the past few years, the "earth-flavored posters" of Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers have repeatedly set off discussions.Topics such as "Golden Rooster, you are too beautiful" have begun to attract the attention of netizens. Many netizens even made posters themselves to "make suggestions" for the official.
Faced with the doubts and suggestions of netizens, the official organizing committee finally passed the Golden Rooster on August 13 The official Weibo of the Baihua Film Festival said it would like to thank the netizens for their creativity and design, and promised to do their best. Soon after, when the main visual poster for this year's Golden Rooster Award was announced, the worried netizens were finally given away. One breath-whether it is the overall design or the style of painting, the Golden Rooster Award posters are closer to the current mainstream aesthetics, and the meaning of "returning to the original heart" conveyed by the posters also has a deep meaning in the current context.
Golden Rooster Award What is the original intention?
reverts the era back to 38 years ago, which represents the courage to break the rigid aesthetic system, break the prejudices of public opinion, and break the creative template. It represents the recognition of the best creators and the most contemporary filmmakers. , Represents the attitude of standing with the people’s preferences and mainstream public opinion. Today, when the old look of Chinese movies is changing, and if you want to return to the original aspiration, there are still many changes to be made in the "Middle-aged Golden Rooster Award".
is planning At the stage, this year’s Golden Rooster Awards increased the proportion of screenings and established international screenings; after the film festival officially started, the film channel and Xiamen Broadcasting & Television launched the ""Rooster Dancing" The 32nd China Film Golden Rooster Awards 5G panoramic live broadcast" event This is also the first time for the Golden Rooster Awards to be broadcast live on such a large scale. During the film festival, the organizer also plans to organize forums and lines including "Internet Night" in collaboration with emerging Internet film companies such as Tencent Pictures and Tao Piao Piao. The ticket sales event on the topic; coupled with the participation of stars with large fans such as Zhou Dongyu, Yi Qianqianxi, and Liu Haoran, the Golden Rooster Award has had such a strong sense of interaction with the public for the first time in many years.
After this year's playlist, I deliberately rushed to Xiamen to watch "Spring Tide". "A graduate student in Fuzhou said to Dumo, and she bought the movie tickets at a higher price when they were sold out early. "I will go to Xiamen University tomorrow to participate in the sharing and exchange of director Wanma Caidan. In the past, Fujian rarely had such frequent and intensive film activities. Compared with the Golden Rooster Awards in previous years, "
" is still thoughtful and regulated. "A director who came to the Golden Rooster Award with his own film project to participate in venture capital investment told Du Mao that whether it is from the film festival itself or external evaluations, this year's Golden Rooster Awards have shown a "prosperous" posture-he participated This year’s venture capital link is also newly added.
At the awards ceremony, the organizing committee specially set up two senior actors Zhang Yu and Liu Xiaoqing, who won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress in the 1980s. The Best Actress Yongmei Award; the words "Long Live the Movie" occupy the big screen of the award ceremony, attracting tears in the eyes of the filmmakers; Liu Miaomiao, the director of "Red Flowers and Green Leaves", who won the best medium and small cost feature film, trembles Standing on the stage, thanks to the Golden Rooster Award for giving the creators affirmation of spirit and feelings, the Golden Rooster Award has finally become a stage for filmmakers to gather, celebrate, and dream of dreams.
But even so, it is difficult for us to define it. "Nirvana." Because for any film festival and film award with wide recognition, influence and authority need time to settle. During my visit to Xiamen, I also encountered many Fans and practitioners confessed to Poison Eye that the appeal of the films shown this year is still relatively limited, and some of the volunteers of the film festival obviously have not received complete and professional training, and even have accidents such as chaos and disorder in the entrance. The situation happened.
But fortunately, more film practitioners showed high expectations and tolerance for the Golden Rooster Award finally landing in Xiamen: "Although the film atmosphere in Xiamen is still a little bit worse, after all, it’s the first year. After staying here, it will definitely get better and better and more new changes will happen. "
In addition to the film festival, the setting of the agenda, and the packaging, there is another topic that cannot be avoided, that is, the quality of the film. The dawn of the Golden Rooster in 1981 was because the Chinese film was ushering in a new life; 20 years ago, the Golden Rooster The start to hesitate is because Chinese movies are at a low point; to this day, the "renaissance" of Chinese movies has made the Golden Rooster cry again, and if the Golden Rooster Award is to go further to glory, it is bound to rely on Chinese movies that need to be better- This step has just been taken, but fortunately, it is “already on the way.” At last night’s awards ceremony,
used the phrase “1997 has passed and I miss it very much” in the 1997 "Party A and Party B" to attract many audiences. Still rememberThe new actor Ge You dubbed the Golden Rooster Award tribute short film "This Year That Year". At the end of the short film, Ge You said: "This year, Chinese movies will usher in a new era of light and shadow of the golden rooster. 2019 is about to pass, and we will miss it."
