Divine Grace Animation is the cornerstone that allowed Tianba Studio to expand and continue to survive, and one of the studio’s most stable sources of income.

Because of this, for the first Divine Grace Animation Production Contest, Chen Ba spared no effort, investing money and energy, not daring to be negligent in the slightest.

The contest runs from January to mid-year in June, with entrants from all over the world, with no restrictions on nationality or age, and no limitations on themes...

The judging process is very simple!

During the period from January to June, all eligible entries will appear on the event webpage. The voting channel opens at the beginning of June, and the 20 works with the most support will be shortlisted for the final decision by the core evaluation committee.

In addition to these 20 "audition" works, there are 10 works occupying the "reserved spots" exclusively for those with connections.

These 10 works will be jointly recommended by major animation companies, well-known animation websites, renowned animators, and the Divine Grace Animation Association.

The reserved spots seem a bit excessive.

Although these 10 slots sound indistinguishable from connections, in reality, the reason Chen Ba reserved these 10 spots is mainly for works with niche or less popular themes.

No choice!

The early round of auditions is too brutal, relying solely on popularity and acceptance, and audience votes are given only to the works they like, making it impossible for niche and lesser-known works to compete.

This means that some lesser-known themed Divine Grace Animations will suffer in this respect, even if they boast high quality, deep storylines, and humanistic care, they will likely be eliminated.

Therefore, Chen Ba has kept a backup plan.

If there are such works whose popularity and momentum cannot match others, but the quality is top-notch, they can take the backdoor into the evaluation committee’s view.

The 20 audition works + 10 recommended works, a total of 30 Divine Grace Animation works, will finally result in one gold award, five silver awards, and ten excellence awards, with the rest receiving participation awards.

This means that even if no major award is won in the evaluation stage, one can still get a "participation award" for some consolation.

The participation award is 100,000 RMB!

The excellence award is 500,000 RMB!

The silver award is 1,000,000 RMB and the gold award is 5,000,000 RMB, all in RMB!

Half of this money will be secured through sponsorship by the Divine Grace Animation Association, and the other half will be borne by Tianba Studio.

"Isn’t just one gold award too little?"

For this event’s award arrangement, Yang Dong speculated: "Awarding only one gold award for those works that are closely matched seems a bit regrettable?"

"You could have double winners!"

"Besides, you think that the number of gold awards is too few to meet the demand. But this event is held once a year, one gold award per year isn’t too little, right?"

To be honest.

Compared to Yang Dong’s unnecessary worry, Chen Ba is more concerned about whether one gold award a year for Divine Grace Animation is too frequent.

If in a certain year, the output of Divine Grace Animation plummets, or the average quality is uneven, making it difficult to select a worthy gold award work, wouldn’t they be forced to award the gold to a work that only deserved a silver in previous years?

"This situation will definitely occur."

Yang Dong asserted: "Just take a look at the Oscar ceremonies, do they have a high-quality Best Picture every year?"

No, no, no!

Though the Oscar is a high honor, everyone knows that some films truly deserve Best Picture, while others win simply because they’re the best of a weak field.

The mature Hollywood film industry still cannot consistently produce a high-quality film every year, let alone Divine Grace Animation.

So, what Chen Ba worries about is bound to happen, but it’s normal and not worth worrying about.

If a certain year’s Divine Grace Animation is subpar, and the gold award winner is only at the level of last year’s "silver" or "excellence" award, then so be it!

If the market is not doing well, and there’s no qualified gold award film, it doesn’t mean there won’t be a gold award that year, the gold award should still be set and awarded.

A mere 5 million, Tianba Studio can still afford it...

"What if they can’t?"

"Then give up sponsorship and naming rights, let the Divine Grace Animation Association raise funds and sponsorship themselves!"

Chen Ba waved his hand and said: "I hope that day never comes because if it does, it means that Tianba Studio has fallen."

Truthfully, if Tianba Studio really gets to the point where they can’t come up with the money, there’s no point in continuing this event.

Because if Tianba Studio is in such dire straits, imagine the state of Divine Grace Animation. What’s the point in continuing the event?

...

Jiangning, Jinding Road.

In front of a tea restaurant with a rather classical style of decoration, there stands a signboard with the words: Warmly celebrate the successful holding of Jiangning’s First Zixiao Palace Dao Forum, welcoming all fellow Daoists to come and discuss Dao!

This line is really eye-catching!

Passersby can’t help but cast curious glances into the restaurant after seeing this sign.

What is this?

Zixiao Palace Dao Forum? Is this Zixiao Palace the one I think it is? Oh... it turns out the restaurant’s name is Zixiao Palace, apologies!

Early in the morning, Old Chen dressed appropriately and, with a paper fan printed with the words "Galactic Emperor," a game merchandise he had just grabbed from his son’s company, arrived outside Zixiao Palace.