Chapter 659 The film "The Forest Without Flowers" grossed 8.86 million island dollars in its first three days of release, which is equivalent to about 2 million yuan.
With only two million yuan in box office revenue after three days of release, it's practically a flop in the mainland market and can be considered a cash cow. However, considering the size of Taiwan, this result is not bad, placing it in the upper-middle range.
Luo Yao immediately sent a report to Shang Yechu and Yang Huanyi. According to her estimate, based on the current trend of the word-of-mouth and box office performance of "The Forest Without Flowers," the film would soon recoup its costs.
Speaking of which, Shang Yechu once gave Luo Yao a very unprofessional suggestion: to try submitting "The Forest Without Flowers" to the three major European film festivals (Berlin, Cannes, and Venice). In her impression, these film festivals seemed to favor this type of subject matter.
Luo Yao shook his head and explained to Shang Yechu.
The European Film Festival (EFF) does not have a separate application process for any particular section. After a film submits its materials to the festival, the organizing committee's selection panel will allocate the films to different sections.
Although social attitudes are becoming more open, the main competition sections of the three major European film festivals still primarily feature traditional feature films. Furthermore, these festivals place immense emphasis on the director's experience; a director with no connections and no representative works has virtually no chance of being nominated for the main competition. If that director is of Chinese descent, then that "virtually" can be removed.
Therefore, "The Forest Without Flowers" will most likely not be assigned to the main competition, but rather to a secondary category such as the Panorama.
The Panorama section is the second main venue of the Berlin Film Festival, specializing in films with sharp, avant-garde, and diverse themes, with films on LGBTQ+ topics being its flagship. The Berlin Film Festival's Unicorn Award is globally recognized as the most influential LGBTQ+ film award.
Shang Yechu recalled that he gave two counter-examples in confusion at the time: "Director Shao Guangji's first film, 'The Cold Anvil,' won the Golden Griffin Award in the main competition of Berlin, which shocked the country. Director Zhan Kexiang's first film, 'The Orange Bottle,' although it did not win an award, was shortlisted for the main competition of Venice."
Luo Yao said with a wry smile, "Ye Chu, do you want to see what Shao Guangji did before he made 'Cold Anvil'? Before he made the film, he had already won all the documentary and cinematography awards in China and abroad. He was backed by Guangying Century Film Studio, one of the largest film studios in Asia! What kind of relationship does he have with new directors? As for Zhan Kexiang, the situation is similar."
Shang Yechu then realized that she had only worked with Shao Guangji on a film, and thus naturally regarded him as a film director, ignoring his resume of many other types of works.
Luo Yao's starting point was lower than Zhan Kexiang and Shao Guangji's; he was more of an amateur than a newcomer.
Building a resume through secondary sections and other film festivals—such as Critics' Week at Cannes and the Horizons section at Venice—is one of the most common ways for directors to climb the ladder of success. They build their reputation in these areas before challenging for a spot in the main competition.
If Luo Yao could win the Unicorn Award, she would become famous overnight. However, what Luo Yao didn't expect was that she was nominated for the Film World Award before the Berlin Film Festival, which was like a windfall.
Luo Yao was easygoing and unpretentious, often giving Shang Yechu the illusion that she was naive and inexperienced. It wasn't until after the discussion about the award application that Shang Yechu realized she was already a woman in her thirties with a well-defined career path.
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