Chapter 513: Preparation for the Anime Awards

Chapter 513: Preparations for the Animation Awards

A day after the concert, on January 13th, the lunar calendar entered the twelfth month, with one month until the Spring Festival and forty days until the Shanhai Animation Festival on February 22nd. Naturally, Meng Fan’s focus, time, and energy shifted toward this matter.

Oh, and there was another quite important event: the official announcement of the nominations for the Laureus World Sports Awards. Meng Fan was prominently listed, nominated for two awards: World Sportsman of the Year and World Breakthrough of the Year. If it had been before 2008, he would surely have been nominated for World Newcomer of the Year as well, but unfortunately, that award was discontinued in 2008.

The official nomination summary described Meng Fan in a remarkably impressive light.

Meng Fan (Candidate for World Sportsman of the Year): A legendary athlete who won five gold medals across three major sports at a single Olympic Games.

Meng Fan (Candidate for World Breakthrough of the Year): Broke the traditional methods of wrestling and judo competition and elevated weightlifting records beyond human limits.

The award ceremony was set for February 18th, which fell on the seventh day of the first lunar month, to be held in Monaco, the world’s second-smallest country, where land is at a premium.

As an athlete with two nominations, Meng Fan naturally received an invitation to the ceremony and could bring several people along. As for winning or not, it was far from certain, unlike the domestic Laureus Top Ten. After all, each of the two award categories included two other nominees whose commercial value, fame, and influence were at least on par with Meng Fan’s, if not higher. Although winning five gold medals at a single Olympics was a huge bargaining chip, there was no guarantee it would outweigh the weight of winning yet another tennis Grand Slam, another golf championship, or another F1 title.

Whether he would take home an award remained an unknown; Meng Fan, as one of six candidates, had a probability of over 20% for each award. Still, it wouldn’t be too high, given that the Laureus World Sports Awards have a strong preference for tennis, golf, and F1, followed by track and field, swimming, and football. Winning in the combined categories of weightlifting, wrestling, and judo was genuinely difficult. If Meng Fan hadn’t spanned three major sports, even achieving terrifying results in a single event would have made nomination a challenge.

For the entire Chinese sports world, Meng Fan’s nominations for these two major awards were a monumental event. He was the first Chinese athlete ever nominated for World Sportsman of the Year and the first to be simultaneously nominated for both World Sportsman of the Year and World Breakthrough of the Year—a landmark achievement.

The Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center, and even the General Administration of Sport, took this very seriously. Besides ensuring Meng Fan was prepared to actively participate in the ceremony, they also used various channels to increase his chances of winning. Although the Laureus World Sports Awards, unlike North American awards including the Oscars, are not directly backed by the Lobbying Act, there are certainly legitimate public relations channels.

The public relations target for the Laureus World Sports Awards was naturally the seventy or so members of the Laureus World Sports Academy. Bribery, of course, was out of the question. The main focus of the PR was to promote Meng Fan’s influence across the three sports, including the boost his victories gave to the development of these sports in China and even across Asia. Another crucial point was charity and public welfare, as the Laureus World Sports Awards also emphasize philanthropy.

They hadn’t known until they looked into it, but when they did, they were shocked. The Weightlifting, Wrestling, and Judo Center discovered that Meng Fan had long been involved in public welfare and charity, investing heavily in both time and money. Hosting the animation festival wasn’t strictly charity, but establishing scholarships and grants at the China Academy of Art certainly was. Additionally, he had donated books, made financial contributions, participated in charity runs, engaged in music education initiatives, and filmed public service announcements.

In terms of financial contributions, incomplete statistics already exceeded fifty million yuan!

In truth, Meng Fan’s charitable and philanthropic efforts weren’t exactly low-key—at least, he hadn’t hidden them from anyone; they were all public. It was just that his other activities were so high-profile that whenever he appeared, he dominated the headlines. So while many knew about his charity work, it wasn’t a particularly shining part of his image. In comparison, it seemed quite understated.

Being so low-key wouldn’t do!

At the very least, those legendary athletes in the Laureus World Sports Academy needed to know!

The difficulty of organizing an awards ceremony was clearly far greater than Meng Fan had imagined. It wasn’t simply a matter of him making a decision and having everything handled for him, nor could he just be a hands-off manager like he was with the concert.

First, he had to secure the right to host the animation festival. This involved submitting a proposal to the General Administration for approval, then registering with the host city and passing their review. After going through the entire process, Meng Fan realized just how ignorant he had been when he set the date for February 22nd. The most impressive part was that Bilibili and Tencent Animation had bravely gone along with it. In the end, approval was granted, but the festival was only classified as a local event in Hangzhou.

Of course, being a regional event didn’t have much impact, but it was absolutely impossible to obtain provincial or national policy support with that status. Meng Fan couldn’t quite calculate the financial implications, but Bilibili and Tencent Animation felt the sting deeply. Now, they hoped that after the first edition, they could increase its influence and apply for a higher-level classification.

Next came the setting of awards and the selection of works. Meng Fan had initially proposed a dual recommendation system involving both industry insiders and fans. The idea was good, and the results might be favorable, but the process was excruciatingly complicated—far from the simplicity Meng Fan had imagined. Some unpleasant situations arose, such as animation studios bribing professional and fan judges to manipulate the selection and push their own works. This kind of thing was far too uncontrollable, especially given the enormous interests at stake. Not to mention the prize money Meng Fan had offered, the sheer momentum of the Shanhai Animation Awards had already created a massive flow of traffic.

Then there were the presenters and performers. Finding performers was relatively easy; Meng Fan had already confirmed many celebrities well in advance. Although the timing was early, most had committed and wouldn’t back out. He also invited many stars who wouldn’t perform but would attend to add weight to the ceremony, along with celebrities from the animation industry. In comparison, finding award presenters was more challenging.

If the presenters were all entertainment industry stars, that would be feasible and easy to arrange, but it clearly didn’t align with Meng Fan’s original intentions. It might bring traffic to the animation circle but wouldn’t foster healthy development. So, they needed to seek out heavyweights within the industry.

Meng Fan discussed this with Bilibili and Tencent Animation, settling on several directions. First, relevant officials would certainly attend. Second, a group of big names from the domestic animation circle had to be invited. Third, international heavyweights should also be invited, including manga artists, animation directors, voice-acting masters, and even animation music maestros.

Domestic figures were somewhat easier to find, with Bilibili and Tencent Animation handling the invitations. For international figures, both companies would also have to step up, and Meng Fan would certainly need to reach out as well.

(End of chapter)