#109 How Chinese stories are going to the Cannes Festival
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Hello everyone, I am with LJ, editor of the World of Chinese magazine, which commissions Middle Earth. Hi Aladdin. So LJ, what are the exclusive stories that you guys have worked on this issue 104? We focus on how urban Chinese residents are reconnecting with nature. So they are lacking nature now? Absolutely. They discovered that there is a serious lack of nature education among urban kids right now. It has a negative impact on them, but there is also a strong effort to change the situation.

In a related story, we explored how a well-designed zoo in Nanjing has attracted large group of followers and how it has inspired them to care more about nature and wildlife.

And so in this issue, what are the other articles? Yeah, we also took a cruise ship down the Yangtze River, traced the history of game consoles in China, and uncovered why Hunan Cuisine in particular is taking China by storm right now. So dear listeners, if you want to know more and support the podcast, go to theworldofchinese.com and order your latest copy.

Hi everyone and welcome to Middle-Earth, your source for insight into China's cultural industry. Listen to those who are making a living by creating and distributing art or content in the world's second biggest cultural market. I'm your host Aladin Fahri. If you need a location scouting for an ex-project in China, film translation service or find a co-producer, you should reach out and I

I think that's great to use the Cannes Festival to say that I'm currently preparing to launch with a partner, a French company in Paris, with focus on post-production subsidies for Asian projects. Also, if you are a Chinese speaker and you don't mind my broken Chinese, don't hesitate to check my Bilibili account, aladinxuodyanin, link in the podcast description.

Today we are or were at the Cannes festival in southern France. Since I was attending the festival for business, I thought it would be a good idea to check in with my peers also attending the festival to gauge how Chinese films, projects and short films are performing at the world's most famous film festival.

Each year since the 90s, we've had at least one film from a Chinese territory selected for the main competition. And this year, it is Resurrection from director Bi Gan. Next to that, several feature, short and in-progress films have been selected in the various selections all around the festival.

For those who may not know, Cannes is massive. It is one of the most watched events on the planet that maybe don't reach the eyeballs level of football competition in the Olympics, but outside of sports is definitely the biggest cultural event in the world. Anyone in the film industry has to be here at some point. For instance, Yvon Song Huan, co-founder of the first film festival in Sining, who we had on the podcast for example, was here to network with 3M Professional.

And so many of my Beijing contacts are here as well. And to give you a sense of scale, over 15,000 film professionals descend on Cannes, alongside 40,000 film enthusiasts and more than 4,500 journalists. All of it within a city of only 70,000 residents. So today, to discuss how China film industry connects with the rest of the world, we have three guests. All of us are remotes. We've all been at Cannes at some point during the week, but now we've all shuffled and went back to various places. So first, Cai Liuying. Hello.

My name is Liu Ying. I work for a South Asian production company called Parallax Films. I was in Cannes for one week and I was there mostly for networking with the professionals and taking meetings with programmers and buyers and promoting the films, mostly from China, but we do work with other films from Asian territory.

And actually Liu Ying is a returning guest from Middle-earth episode 44: Does China still make indie film? Link in the podcast description. Next to you in the chat box but already back in Beijing, Clément Magard, hello. Hi Aladin, hi all. Yes, I'm Clément.

I'm French, I live in Beijing and I've been working with Fortissimo Films for seven years. I do the same job as Liu Ying, I'm a sales agent so I was in Cannes last week to meet mostly our buyers and programmers to network and

enjoy the sea in can and last the last person who's actually still in can as of today hello hello everyone i live in beijing i'm in canada now i came here because my short film two moments before the flag raising ceremony was selected by the same

Okay. And you're leaving out actually the best news is that actually your short film yesterday has won the second prize of the competition because Cannes has a lot of competition and one of them is a short film from students and you won the second prize. So yeah, congratulations to you. Alright.

So we'll mainly discuss today how important Cannes and International Film Festival in general is for film and how Chinese film can leverage those platforms, how the industry, market and audience tastes are evolving and our impression of this year's film festival. And as usual, we'll finish the panel conversation with a podcast usual quiz where one of our guests will win a prize.

First, I think it would be fun, quote unquote, for our audience to understand just how demanding it is to attend a professional event like Cannes. Because me, whenever I told a friend that I was going there, everyone was assuming that I was going on vacation, taking selfies on the red carpet with Tom Cruise and sipping champagne. But actually, it was a little bit far from being actually glamorous. Clément Liuying, because you've been in Cannes several times, I would like for you to explain to the audience what it's like to experience the festival as a professional.

So for me, being part of Cannes usually means a very intense period of time, which means because you know everyone will be super busy during Cannes because it's not only a film festival that shows films, but also a networking platform that everyone wants to take advantage of.

So our days are usually cut into different small slots and usually each slot lasts 30 minutes. So it's a very precise procedure of, you know, booking a meeting with someone and saying, hey, I'm free from this time to this time. So before going to Cannes, we really needed to make full use of our schedules and we need to send out lots of emails, booking the meetings with buyers and programmers. Some of them we know, some of them we don't.

We need to make sure that your day is not wasted. And especially if you have a booth in Cannes, you already spent lots of money in renting the booth. So you don't want your booth to be empty.

And other than that, of course, the program, the official program of Cannes is very enticing. So as a cinephile myself, I wanted to watch some films at least. This means combining your busy meeting schedule with the screening schedule, which is kind of like mission impossible. So it's always like a game of keeping the balance and a game of making the full use of the very limited time that you're in Cannes. So yes, it's a very intense period of time.

Yeah, because for those who don't know, so you do have like all the official screening places where, you know, you go see the star on the red carpet, but there are like several selection. There is even like a VR XR competition. But then, yes, on the other side, you have like all the professional meetings like Clément Lioying and me have been there.

So I don't know, Clément, jumping to you, like how, because I guess you've been in Cats in real time. How did it went for you? How is the business going? Like do a lot of people, because you said you mainly sell Chinese film. So I'm wondering like how are things going? Like did you sign a lot of contracts? Did you meet a lot of people interested into your product? Yeah, so that's the objective, to meet people interested in our products and sell those. But I must say this year we had a tiny lineup with only three new titles.

and one that we think that can be a good sale, but the movie is not completed yet. So it was more introducing the movie to the buyers. Even if we don't sign the contracts onsite, it's very important that they know about the film so when the movie is out, we can be efficient in the sales. You know, I've been to Cannes, I guess around 10 times,

And this pressure of doing many meetings because you've spent money on your booth or you've spent money on your travel and you want to be and you see so many buyers from all around the globe, all around the city. And the first years I was under pressure to meet as many people as I could and try to benefit the most. But now I'm a little bit more relaxed because I know it's not very useful to go to all those parties and to meet all those people you see in the street. I mean, this is my own experience.

So I try to do the meetings that I think are useful, which are not, I mean, there are many, but not as crazy as I guess a big company would have because we're a small company with a smaller lineup. So, but still there's kind of a, yeah, a feeling of being overwhelmed by so many events and people and only doing, you know, you're part of Cannes, you see so many movie stars and so many movies and big movies and you're on a very small part of the festival. Yeah.

Maybe you bring three, four, five, six films that are sometimes not even in the selection of the main competition of the event. You're just selling movies on the market side, not on the festival side. So yeah, it's a very busy period with a lot of people you can meet. But I try to focus on what I can do. And for example, the movie screenings, I just focus.

gave up a few years ago. It's too difficult to go watch movies. So when the festival offers me a ticket at night, I would go. But going myself...

With the alarm clock in the morning at 9, like seeing if I was like doing my job, some of the people might do at 9am before the meetings. Unfortunately, I'm not strong enough. So I just gave up on the screenings. I'm wondering just to take a step back, like because today with the age of the internet and everyone, you know, can send screener over Vimeo or YouTube, things like that, like what are actually still the value of

of going to those film festivals and paying a really expensive booth. I mean, just, you know, to be transparent with me, I paid myself a market pass that was 500 euros. I managed to get an early ticket. And I mean, I still think at the end of the day, it was worth the money, but it's quite the investment to go all the way to Cannes. Also, I had like a family friend, so I could stay really for cheap in city downtown.

Whereas like some Ibis hotel, you have to pay 300 euros for just one night. As of today, internet is like, so every day now we can send screener, everyone can do Zoom meeting. What's the point of still going to those festivals? Yeah, I think in the age of internet, making a face-to-face connection is still quite important. And it happens to me that

But, you know, for the first meeting with someone new, you talked 30 minutes only about, you know, your business and this very rigid, non-interesting talk. But it takes maybe two to three markets for you to get closer to these people. And all of a sudden you can find some interesting part from him or her. I think that was that is the moment that.

that the interaction really works out. So I think it's still very precious for me to meet people there. And of course, for some market screenings, you can't, like for some films that are not available online yet, it's also essential to watch the market screening, which is not the particular, like a specific job for a sales agent, but I'm always very interested in finding out the new project. And I'm also doing some curation and programming there.

So it's good to keep an eye on what's coming up. Yeah, quickly. The question you ask is something that I ask myself often. What's the use of doing all those markets or...

But now my conclusion also because during COVID we did a lot of online meetings and I would say that over the past three years or even the past 10 years, yeah, it's very obvious that the two movies that I sold best, like really good money, those two, I never met the clients in my life.

So I remember my colleagues, they were like the old school. They said, Clément, you should come out at night and go to these parties. This is very important. I said, yes, but how many contracts you bring back from these parties? Nothing, never. And the movies I saw very well. I never met in person the client. So yeah, this is actually a question. How much do you want to spend on those travels? So my conclusion is that, you know, it's good to have some in a year. I mean, one or two in one year, right?

But in terms of really usefulness, it's not useful to travel to all of those. But I would say that the value of it is not much like the contracts you will make on site. Because again, I believe it's more about the product you're selling that matters. What's the movie you're selling?

if the person is in the US and you're in China, you never meet, it's fine if they like the movie because they can watch it online. It's more about the market intelligence that you gather from all your meetings in Cannes. You talk with a Brazilian person, you know, whatever, Russian, buyer, American. And through the talk, you ask him about the market and he tells you specific stories about the release of whatever theme about the market. So it's more about all this intelligence that I gather and I have in mind. And

You know, it prints better your mind when you talk face-to-face. Because when you talk on Zoom, you just talk about business and the movie, the contract terms and stuff. But you don't have time to talk too much about it. So these meetings are important for business intelligence, I would say. Clément says he doesn't like to go to those events

party but I saw you at China Night and you were really dashing in your tuxedo so I don't know if I would agree with that but anyway I'm coming back to Liu Ying because when we had our pre-interview and we talked about you know the value of festival things like that you

You said festivals are a really good way to curate and find new creators and upcoming films and things like that. So could you elaborate a little bit on this? True. And of course, when you go to some random screening and you feel impressed by one film,

It's like a good starting point for you to follow up the career of the director or the producer. And often you'll find them making more new titles, interesting titles in the next few years. So it's a good start. And what have we? We do have a director in the room now, Jojong. So again, like we said, like your short film, 12 Moments Before the Flag Raising Ceremony was selected at the CNF section, which is like the section which is about like a film student section.

so you will again like you won second prize just yesterday that's like right off the bat news so i'm wondering like could you talk to us about quickly your film not so much the editorial but how you made it and how it was selected at can and what do you feel this film festival is bringing to you yeah sure my film is about a student in beijing he just want to create a

flag-raising team and he was the flag-raiser of that team. But during the process, there's a lot of difficulties. That is the story. And I just submitted it on the website and I received the email like two months later from the last thing. From that moment, I know that I was selected. Well, wait, so just...

I feel the festival is really awesome.

Everybody loves film and every day got lots of screening of the great movies and lots of events for the young filmmakers and for the producers or something. And I really enjoyed the weather here and the sunshine and the beach. We go swimming every day. We didn't go to the events or get any contracts back because we maybe it's because we go to swimming every day.

I gotta say it was my first time in Cannes this year. I'm really touched by how there's really a great vibe of you can just talk to everyone, talk about movies and talk about like projects. It's a really great place to be. Like I think anyone liking movies, if you can pay for it, like I think I treat this as like my yearly vacation. You know, some people they would go

climb in Nepal or swim in Bali but I guess Cannes could be a vacation in itself. Now moving on like how Cannes and those big film festivals help Chinese creators. So this year a Chinese speaking language film Resurrection directed by Bi Gan with Jackson Lee is on the main competition. At this moment of recording we don't know if it will be the Golden Palm and no one has seen it in the room but yeah I've seen like the review on Letterboxd and on the professional film critics so I don't know

I guess it's either it's going to win big or it's just going to win nothing. So we'll see about that. Now turning to the two sales agent professional, distributor professional. Like I was wondering how being selected at Cannes or any big film festival, you know, like Toronto, Berlin, Venice, like how does this impact the film lifespan and a director's career? It's obviously a very nice exposure to start with, to launch the sales of a movie because it gets on the radar of buyers.

It gives a label and it gives a reason for buyers to spend some time and maybe watch it. But that's the first step to try to get the attention of the buyers. But then the second step in terms of sales, most Chinese movies that we're selling are

the buyers, they need to watch the film. I think it was the German buyer of this Resurrection movie. They bought the movie during Berlin without watching nothing. They just watched one or two clips of the movie. So that happens for big names because Big Can was in Cannes, I think twice before. It has two movie stars. So it happens that you can sell movies without buyer watching the film.

But for the movies that we do, I mean, most of the time, when it's not a big name, the director, then people need to watch. So if it's in the festival to be launched, it's good, but then they need to watch the film. If they don't like the movie or the movie doesn't connect with their market, then they will not make an offer. So I would say that festivals are a very plus, a strong plus, but not enough to sell the movie. It's still needed because sometimes the festivals, their program...

very good for movie lovers and cinephiles or

or journalists, but it doesn't work with the mainstream market or audience. So sometimes the market and the festivals, their choices are separated. To add to what Claymon just said, I think we need to more or less differentiate different festivals. For example, I think Cannes is a very special festival that will influence a lot on the sales. If your film is selected in the official program of Cannes, I think the performance in sales

is already guaranteed to be the next level. Whereas if your film is selected by, let's say, Berlinale in Panorama, even if it's an official selection, it doesn't necessarily mean that your film will sell, especially the films from Asia or from China more specifically, because the program is curated for cinephiles, not for the bigger market, or Berlin is very famous for being too art house at some point.

So I think there are different categories of festivals. And one thing to add on that I've...

I found out that after doing some years of sales and festival strategy and after talking with some bigger sales company from Europe, I suddenly found out that they actually don't put too many and too much emphasis on festivals. Usually for some titles they're selling, they only emphasize on the premiere or the two other festivals that follows. And then they switch to the sales immediately afterwards.

which is a very interesting case to me because sometimes I feel, oh, maybe your film should go to like 50 festivals before it can be sold. But this is not the case, actually. So the festival performance and the sales are not necessarily relevant or dependent to each other.

So to take a step back out of the festival, it's in terms of like how does Chinese speaking film horror, because now we're talking about like, you know, selling movies in cinema around the world and platform. So most of them will, unless you're a blockbuster, you definitely, I think, need to my understanding, a bit of a festival run, at least like one good festival picking you up. But then how does like Chinese film, how do they do on the international market in the current states?

Well, if you see the figures, there are not many Chinese people

that are actually released around the world. You have what you call community releases. So for the Chinese community in America or the UK. So every year you have the Chinese big hits that are actually released in the US and UK and Australia. But those are what we call community releases for the Chinese community. Out of these, you don't have many titles. Even the movies that we are selling, we can ask Liu Ying, but the movies we are selling...

that actually got a theatrical release in several countries. This is the animation Deep Sea and we sold two Chinese movies to Netflix. That was a global release. That's good also. But except from that, it's rather small. So in reality, it's not big. The good news for me is that the buyers, sometimes they don't care that much if it's Chinese or not Chinese. Anyways, we're not Hollywood movies. We're non-Hollywoods.

So being non-Hollywood, we're a small part of the market in any country in the world when you're not Hollywood or local.

And for those titles, the buyers, they actually care about the content, not too much about the country. I would say that now we mostly do genre, we find it's more easy because they can travel better. So the genre is maybe more important than the country. Obviously, China is strong for several genres like animation right now, maybe wuxia also, but this is declining.

So yes, I don't think too much in terms of Chinese movies selling to the world. I think about the strong, good genre movies that can sell or not. Yeah, I also agree with Clément. And I think for the films that we are selling, they are relatively small compared to the commercial films. And in the Chinese film industry, there are two ends actually at this moment. One is the

mainstream commercial films that actually don't care so much about the overseas market except for Nezha maybe because of the box office is such a huge hit then they started to think if they can also make some money outside China but other than that some most commercial films they don't care they like the Chinese market itself is a very sufficient self-sufficient market

And on the other hand, there are these like independently made films because, you know, now it's very hard to finance a film in China. So in the middle, we don't have

like films, a lot of auteur-driven films with some commercial value. So this part is kind of empty now. So we have two extremes. And for the independent film, of course, they care a lot about festivals, but then the sales is a big problem for them. For most of the deals that we are talking about, it's not like worldwide sales. It's just like a small release or on streaming platform release.

So now turning to Jojang. So as your film has been selected, so I'm wondering you and your producer, like how do you see Cannes as like a stepping stone for your career and your work? Like how do you think this is going to influence it?

Being a Canadian, I really don't know now. But after I got the prize and people from the jury just found me and told me that if I want to make my first feature, he can introduce me to a producer from the American. I think this is like a chance.

uh getting to the kansas means a lot of chance and you got the chance to meet people the people from your age the people in the field market or or something yeah it's just like that for me and of course it really spread my horizon because yeah also to re-explain what i find interesting in can is that we have the main competition with the

began latest film resurrection that has been selected. But then we have, yeah, like around four or five different selection, like Critics Week, Directors' Fortnight, Short Film, Short Student, Short Film Festival. Also, you have all the work in progress because, yeah, there are like several work in progress in documentary and film. Also, you have all the market itself where people like I check, like I think you have at least like

50 movies if not more of movies that are just for the market itself like to be sold all across territories if I recall Yo-Ying during our pre-interview you said that Cannes was actually the basically the beast of it all like that's like the biggest place to be the biggest market the biggest film festival yes of course and of course you know now the economy is not doing great everywhere so for the people for the professionals they also need to calculate which festival to go to

as you said, as we discussed, we can't go to every festival or every market. So it's time to make some decisions. And Cannes is the, you know, the,

the festival, the market that everyone wants to go. So Liu Ying, you said that now it's basically Chinese film is either like big, big blockbuster that will solely be put in China. And if they go abroad that like Clément said, it's a community screening and those blockbuster only make 1% of their money abroad. Or it's like really indie film that needs...

to go to film festival and there is nothing really in the middle. Yeah, so I'm wondering if both of you guys could expand a little bit on that if you have anything more to say regarding like a project that you've seen or the way the market goes, things like that. Yeah, I mean, right now I feel it's very tough to find. We are like looking for movies that Luying said in the middle. Neither very commercial local hits that mostly romantic comedies that don't travel.

uh not only chinese but main most romantic comedies i don't think they travel great even yeah other countries so these local hits don't work and then the very art house

We leave those to Liu Ying because we think it's very difficult to sell. We try, but it's a very niche market. So it's good that people still do it, but we feel it's very difficult. So in the middle, that's what I said. We're looking for bigger budgets, genre films. We have a hard time to find those films right now in China that can travel. Like the Resurrection, the movie in Cannes,

Obviously, it's a young but very awarded director already. Movie stars, big production value, genre. I think it's fantasy, epic. So this is very much the kind of project we're looking for. But there are not many like this. And also this one goes to Cannes. So this is like the top. Well, I've not seen the movie. I don't know if it will sell well, if it's...

I think it's very specific in arthouse and author, but I still think the obviously can't competition in Western countries. There's still a market for big author can't competition movies.

But yeah, this kind of movie in China, we find it hard to find right now. And I think indeed there's not too much produced movies like that. I think all of us in the room are a bit older than Zhejiang. So turning to the two professionals, you see that Zhejiang has been selected and won second prize at the student short film. I'm wondering for both of you who are in the distribution and with a lot of years in this industry, what advice would you tell him to how navigate his career?

for the next movie and for his first feature? What do you think should be his strategy?

I always tell filmmakers to follow their heart. Maybe this is not the right suggestion at the moment for the survival in the market. Yeah, because Zhizhen was telling me that he wanted to make a documentary about his grandmother. And we were actually in one meeting with a French distributor, French sales agent. And we talk about Zhizhen's new project and the distributor, the sales agent was like,

it's gonna be hard. No documentary. No documentary, it's hard. But if a director wants to make it, he can make it. I don't know, I just think like the short films, maybe it's not like really easy to sell. I think like the feature is much easier to sell, right?

Because no one wants to watch short films in the theater or on the TV channel. So I think the short film is just you can shoot everything you want. It's more free to produce or something. Yeah, because to my understanding, short films are basically stepping stone to making a feature. Like no one makes money by doing short film. Like it's only by...

being selected to film festivals and then you get under the radar of film curators and so on and producers and then maybe it could be the next step for a feature. When you made your short film, did you ever thought you would be selected at one of those big festivals like Cannes? I think I will be selected by some festival but I didn't expect it as Cannes and I don't know what to say when I get to know I get the prize yet.

It's really amazing here. I didn't expect it. One thing that I was quite surprised over my time in Beijing was that every time I talked to film directors and I would want to work with them to send their movie to film festivals, basically they all said "Oh, we tried our chance at Cannes and we got rejected and so we don't want to bother sending our films to everyone else."

So it was interesting to see how Cannes has such a strong magnet for directors, but it feels that outside of Cannes, most directors, they just don't know much about

Maybe Berlin and Toronto and Sundance, but that's it. I feel like we always talk about Cannes, but I think what we should, the audience should realize that there are like this whole ecosystem of film festival all across the planet with specific genre. And I feel like some directors in China, maybe they should also try to, you know, try their luck on maybe B plus level films

to tap into a specific audience, like if it's a thriller or a fantastic film or science fiction and whatnot. I feel Cannes maybe sucked the oxygen out of the air and not so many other film festivals get the credit that they should in China. I think you are definitely right. And this happens all the time when we try to talk with the filmmakers and they all aim at going to the Sainte-Dame, which is Berlin, Cannes and Venice. Other than that, they don't bother or they don't even...

you know, want to try. But as you said, it's a very systematic ecosystem. And they are actually this A-list, B-list festival is also a bit, sounds a bit ridiculous to us because this is also kind of like a random list that the producer association came up

to put different festivals into different categories. Of course, A-list festival is important for some Chinese projects because if you win something at A-list festival, there's a rule in the whole ecosystem of Chinese film industry that you can get some subsidies from the local region where your film is registered.

Other than that, actually, I think this system, this A-list, B-list doesn't really matter because there are way more festivals around the world that are more important than the, for example, B-list festivals. And of course, lots of genre films

There are many, many genre festivals that are attracting more buyers from the niche market or the queer festivals around the world that attract queer buyers. So you don't have to only aiming at A-list festival or Santa. That is a bit of a for me, like you aim too much, but actually you're...

capability is on the lower level. Yeah, I think like for independent films going to festivals is building up your resume. So it's better if you go to more festivals than you can. So yeah, trying your luck with other festivals is also a good strategy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Chinese producers, they're more into Cannes also because

The large audience, they only know those three in China. Can Venice, Berlin, plus maybe Tokyo, Pusan, because it's close by. But apart from those, it's true that in terms of domestic marketing, it doesn't help.

But maybe what they don't understand sometimes is what we want when we go to festivals is to help the international sales, not their domestic distribution. So there is a little bit of a clash there. And most Chinese producers so far, they've not traveled too much

outside because they are based in China, they sometimes don't speak English, so they have not been there to those places and it's then easy to understand why they only know the big names because they've not traveled to the others.

So yeah, this is a little bit part of our job to talk to producers and explain to them what's the use of going to other festivals and genre festivals and festivals they've never heard of. Jojong, in terms of your short film, so you've been selected. Do you know if your short film will be automatically selected

somewhere else. Do you guys have like a distribution plan? Like what's the future of your short film? Actually, I just want the festival from my country, from China mainland can select it. Yeah, so that I can invite lots of people to watch it and experience it. Yeah.

This is my goal, yeah. That's your goal, but what is your producer goal and your distributor goal? Do you guys have thought about a strategy? You can ask my distributor now. We are the sales agents of the film. Now we are trying very hard to push the film and of course after the success of yesterday, we have done some social media promotion right away and sent out newsletters

in the hope that we can get some invitations soon in the future. So according to your experience, I guess a lot of people are going to at least put it on the top of the pile since it's won a prize at Cannes. Yes, and hopefully it means also some chances in sales because I know the French television, they are buying shorts, especially the shorts that win prizes in Cannes. And we had some collaboration before, so I hope this film can also be popularized

picked by bigger TV stations. I think my last question is always about like, do you guys have one last word for the audience? Like, is there anything that you guys want to share that you think is important regarding Cannes, the way Chinese stories go to Cannes and to those big film festivals? I could say to the audience, please guys get ready for the release of our new movie.

The English title is The Girl Who Stole Time. We pitched the movie in Cannes and it will have its international premiere at ANSI Festival. That allows me to tell you that it's a huge festival for animation in France. So hopefully the movie will get released in many countries and our audience will be able to watch it on the big screen. It's a Chinese animation in 3D. Ads are more than welcome. Okay.

Zhouzheng, do you have any last words? Like, you know, how the festival was for you, your hope for the future, something you learned along the way going to Cannes? Actually, I'm still thinking about it, but I just want to see. Maybe it's like, maybe for me it's more like a trip. Yeah, I don't get really excited when I know I get the prize, yeah.

The festival is like a game. It's about luck and about choice and about politics, I think. Every festival is like that. Just do the

do the short you want to make, just make the film you want to make, it's okay. A very general thing to say that everyone should at least go to Cannes once in their life and you will find different ways to be part of the festival, whether you are just a cinephile or a professional or has nothing to do with cinema, there's always some part of Cannes that you can

joy. No, I agree with you. Like, I kind of regret I didn't go earlier. But yeah, that's what happened when you work mostly in TV documentary. But what's funny is that still, even if you are a cinephile, like a moviegoer, you still have to send them a freaking letter of recommendation so that they pick you up as a cinephile. Like, you can't just like buy a badge the way you want it. Like, you have to prove to them that you watch a lot of movies or that you have a blog or a honshu, I guess, or things like that. So

Even going to Cannes, it's...

It's not for everyone. Even when I applied for the market, I had to send them my CV. Like I paid and then I had to send them my CV and I had to wait one week before they said, congrats, you can go. Thank you for your money. So, well, thank you guys for sharing all of those information. I think, yeah, that was a good talk regarding the Cannes Festival. And so now to end the podcast, we're going to go to my favorite part of the show, the quiz, where we will see who is the most knowledgeable among our guests.

regarding today's topic. I know I'm going to lose, so do I need to play still? Yes, because if you lose, then at least you're going to be humiliated by it. Come on, Clément, for France. Come on, try to at least score. I bet that Luyeng will win, but let's try. Don't put pressure by saying that.

You know what? People who say I don't win, they always win the quiz. You will see. What's to win? What's the award? A trip to Canada next year? Yeah, sure. No, we don't have the budget right there, but hopefully at some point. So the rules are simple. I will ask you a few questions. If you know the answer, you first buzz in with your name. Each correct answer gives you a point and the person with the most points obviously wins the quiz. And the winner will win a small prize.

So there is three questions and one backup question. So question number one, let's go back to history a little bit. Can you tell me why was the Cannes Festival actually created in the first place? To draw.

I think it's about your against the Viennese, against the Nazi. Yes, indeed. So the Cannes Festival was created in 1939 and the goal was to counter the Venice Film Festival that was totally shaped by fascist and Nazi ideology. So Jean Zellick, our French Minister of Culture and Education, decided to create this festival. One point for Jojong, congrats.

Question number two. As you know, there is a jury at the Cannes Festival. So question number two. Who was the first Chinese jury president? It's a famous actress.

Really? Zhang Manyu? No. No? Clemenceau? Gong Li? Yes, indeed. It is Gong Li. So one point for Clemenceau. Question number three. Let's play Guess the Number. Can you tell me how many Chinese mainland movies joined the international competition? So I counted the co-production and it's really started since the 80s. So each of you are going to say a number and the closest will win a point. Clemenceau, you start. So I would say 30. 30.

30, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Maybe 25, 25, 25, 25, sorry. I say 12. I say 20. So the answer is actually 31. So congratulations, Clément. You win the quiz with two points. Wow. Sorry, guys. I hate being like that.

I love it when people say I'm not gonna win they're always the one winning this works every time so well congratulations Clément will send you a world of Chinese magazine copy to your doorstep

All right. On that note, we'll wrap up the show. Thank you again, you guys, for coming, you know, after this really heavy week of a party and meetings and screenings. And glad to have you until the end, dear listeners. I guess you like that show. And if you do, you can help the Middle Earth podcast to grow by recommending us to your guests. Let me remind you that Middle Earth is part of TWC, the World of Chinese Podcast Network. If you want to know more behind the headlines, go to theworldofchinese.com and order your latest copy.

Also, if you are impressed by this show guest and need to find an interview for your next documentary piece, use a researcher in China, find a co-producer in France, you can give us a call. Today's episode was produced and edited by Aladin Faret. Music by Sean Calvo. And distributed by the World of Chinese Podcast Network. Hope to see you next time. Bye-bye.

Looks like our listeners are still doing their dishes. We're really committed to their workout. For sure. Since we're still here, if you want to learn more about Chinese society, culture, and language, you should head to theworldofchinese.com and follow us on WeChat, TikTok, and Instagram, where you'll discover an impressive collection of award-winning in-depth stories and fun, informative videos, as well as amazing podcasts. Of course. Well, until the next issue then.