Chapter 263: Fighting the Oscar Again, Unlocking New Achievements

At 4:00 PM on March 7th, North American time, Wei Jin and Jing Tian began preparing to walk the red carpet, with Hunter and Matt still keeping each other company.

By this time, many domestic media outlets had already arrived, and they were also extremely expectant about whether Wei Jin could once again capture a Little Golden Man.

Despite having received four nominations, Wei Jin was still not certain whether he could win; there was no other reason than the fact that this period was exactly when the feminist movement in the Western world was in full swing.

The director of *The Hurt Locker*, Katherine Bigelow, undoubtedly possessed a greater advantage; after all, in the history of the Oscar, no woman had ever won the Best Director or Best Picture award.

Not to mention winning, since the 82nd Oscar, only four female directors had received nominations, and the last time that happened dated back to 2004.

Just think about it: at the 82nd Oscar, out of nearly four hundred nominations, there were only four women; it was truly too exaggerated, so this time, Katherine Bigelow's chances of winning were very high.

Moreover, this year's Oscar had an unprecedented 10 films competing for Best Picture, which showed how intense the competition was, though Wei Jin was not without a chance of winning.

First of all, over 90% of the nearly 6,000 Oscar judges were middle-aged and elderly white men. In the era they grew up in, there was no such thing as feminism; these people were typical male chauvinists. They might yield to the current feminist movement, but there would definitely be a backlash.

Secondly, regarding the Oscar Best Picture and Best Director awards, generally speaking, unless there was no controversy at all, it was difficult for the organizing committee to award them to the same film; this was also an opportunity for Wei Jin to pick up a win.

Finally, among these judges, there must be many fans of Michael Jackson, and this was also the best boost for Wei Jin's current run at the Oscar.

While lost in thought, it was already time for Wei Jin's group to walk the red carpet.

Today, Jing Tian was wearing a slim-fitting gown exclusively customized by a designer; the form-fitting cut perfectly outlined her figure, and the elegant color tone was dotted with exquisite embroidery, appearing both noble and exuding a hint of sexiness.

Paired with a pair of high heels in the same color scheme, Jing Tian and Wei Jin stood together, truly looking like a golden boy and jade girl.

The moment they stepped onto the red carpet, the camera flashes never stopped, and Jing Tian also behaved very appropriately; after all, she had walked the red carpet countless times, so it could be said she was well-versed in it.

Soon, the group entered the Kodak Theatre and, under the guidance of the staff, found their own seats.

Generally speaking, at the Oscar awards ceremony, the golden seats in the very middle of the first row were reserved for the acting categories, and sitting there right now were several A-list Hollywood superstars.

Including Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron, Meryl Streep, George Clooney, and others.

But there were exceptions; James Cameron had received 9 nominations for *Avatar* and had swept the global box office, so today he was the absolute core.

And as a Palme d'Or winner, Golden Bear Director, and Oscar Director, the Oscar organizing committee also gave Wei Jin great respect this time; his seat was adjusted from the third row in 2007 to the first row now, and although the position was a bit off-center, the camera lens could easily sweep over him.

As Wei Jin's female companion, Jing Tian also followed him to this "golden zone" that many Hollywood actresses were extremely envious of.

As for Matt and Hunter, the two were arranged in the second row, right behind Wei Jin and Jing Tian.

When the Movie Channel began broadcasting the live footage from inside the venue, Jing Tian, in her light blue gown, moved the hearts of the audience in front of their televisions with every look and smile.

At this time, it was morning domestically, and many people in the industry were also paying attention to this awards ceremony.

Looking at Jing Tian on the television who seemed to be glowing from head to toe, Liu Yifei felt so envious in her heart; although the Venice Film Festival also had high standards, the level of attention it received could not compare to the Oscar. Could it be that she was really going to lose to this woman? Feeling even worse than Liu Yifei was Yang Mi; she had clearly known Wei Jin for a long time, yet she had failed to see the value of this man, missing out on the opportunity to rise to greatness in vain. Otherwise, the person sitting in that position at the center of the world today might have been herself. —— Wei Jin, who was at the scene, naturally did not know the thoughts of the domestic actresses; he was chatting with Matt Damon at this moment.

"Relax, Matt, you have already received two nominations; no matter what, that is a very good achievement."

As Wei Jin spoke, he was also somewhat moved by Matt's good luck. This guy had starred in a biographical film last year—*Invictus*—and had actually been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Added to his Best Actor nomination for *The Hunt*, this might be the moment he was closest to an Oscar Little Golden Man.

"Wei, I'm not nervous, I'm excited. If I win the award, I'll have taken home a Little Golden Man earlier than Leonardo. When that time comes, I must invite him to my house to visit, haha."

Seemingly imagining himself holding the Little Golden Man and showing off in front of Leonardo, with the latter looking envious and jealous yet helpless, Matt Damon let out a hearty laugh.

"Alright, then I wish for us both to get what we desire."

While the two were talking, the host appeared, chatted for a few sentences, and soon the first award began.

Although he had spoken very lightly just now, Wei Jin still noticed the twitching of the muscles on Matt Damon's face, because the award being presented now was exactly the Best Supporting Actor award.

Unfortunately, the name read out by the presenter on stage, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, was not Matt Damon.

This award was taken by the supporting actor who won the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor award in *Inglourious Basterds*, Christopher Waltz.

Despite his disappointment, Matt still applauded with great grace. He had seen all these competing works, and he had to admit that his performance in *Invictus* was still a bit lacking; for the next one, he could only pin his hopes on *The Hunt*.

The subsequent Best Original Song and Best Animated Feature awards had nothing to do with Wei Jin, so he lowered his head and played with Jing Tian's slender fingers.

"Brother, the camera is filming."

In front of the camera, Jing Tian had to appear elegant, so she could only smile and remind her man.

"Let it film, you are my date, what's wrong with holding hands?"

The two were speaking in Chinese, and Theron, who was to the side, was a bit curious.

"Wei, what are you two talking about? Can you let me join in?"

Theron did not have a nomination today; she had come as a presenter for the Best Picture introduction, and she was feeling bored at the moment.

"Uh, Theron, we were just talking about what position to use tonight. Are you sure you want to join?"

Listening to Wei Jin's off-the-wall teasing, both Jing Tian and Theron couldn't keep a straight face, but they still had to maintain their smiles, which was very uncomfortable.

While joking around, the awards reached the Best Original Screenplay, and Wei Jin perked up.

The presenter was also an old acquaintance, Iron Man Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey; the latter was the producer, writer, and star of the series comedy that was sweeping North America, *30 Rock*, a multi-talented person with extremely strong capabilities.

Downey, wearing coffee-colored sunglasses, looked at the card in his hand and pulled a wicked smile at the corner of his mouth: "Congratulations to my good friend, the Hollywood genius director and genius screenwriter, the magical man from the East, Wei Jin, for *The Hunt*!"

This was the first time Wei Jin had won this award. *Room* had received a nomination back then, but he hadn't put his PR efforts into it; now, it could be considered as having been compensated.

"Brother, congratulations to you!" "Wei, congratulations to you!" Two voices rang out at the same time. Wei Jin stood up, first gave Theron a cheek-kiss, then pulled Jing Tian into his arms and whispered in her ear:

"Tian Tian, remember our agreement?"

When they were traveling in Australia, Jing Tian and Wei Jin had agreed that for every Little Golden Man he won, he would give the latter a reward. As for the content of the reward, it was naturally a program that men liked.

Not continuing to tease the young girl, Wei Jin straightened his clothes and strode onto the stage.

After taking the Little Golden Man from Downey's hand and hugging him, Wei Jin held the Little Golden Man high.

"Thank you for the recognition from the Oscar. Since the 82nd Oscar, this is the first time a Chinese person has won the Best Original Screenplay award. I sincerely hope that one day in the future, Chinese people can collect all the Oscar category awards. For this, my compatriots and I will continue to work hard!"

The host of the domestic Movie Channel, the audience in front of their televisions, the netizens watching the Oscar live stream via the internet, and those discussing this awards ceremony on Weibo were all extremely excited because of Wei Jin's win and his speech.

To take all the categories—only Wei Jin had the confidence to shout out such a bold statement, and the key was that he really had a good chance.

The subsequent acceptance speech was relatively simple; Wei Jin focused on thanking the producer Hunter during the film's preparation period and the actor Matt Damon for his passionate and wonderful performance. —— The awards ceremony continued. After the Best Supporting Actress, James Cameron and Katherine Bigelow, the once-married couple, staged a fierce battle for this year's Oscar.

*Avatar* had just won the Best Art Direction award, and *The Hurt Locker* did not show weakness, consecutively capturing the Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing awards, gaining the upper hand in the number of awards.

However, soon, Cameron won one back by taking the Best Cinematography award, and the entire crew's morale instantly soared; one had to know that the gold content of the Best Cinematography award was not comparable to the previous technical awards.

At the same time, Matt also stood up and left; it was almost his turn to present an award.

It is worth mentioning that as soon as Matt left, staff members nearby filled his seat; this was a measure prepared by the Oscar organizing committee to avoid the broadcast footage looking unappealing due to stars leaving their seats.

Matt took the stage, and looking at the list of winners in his hand, his face twitched involuntarily.

His mood was somewhat complicated right now; back then, Cameron had invited him to star in "Avatar" and offered a 10 percent share of the profits, but unfortunately, he had declined Cameron's invitation due to the filming of "Bourne Ultimatum."

Based on the global box office performance of "Avatar," he had lost at least tens of millions of dollars on this wave; it was heartbreaking.

However, despite his complicated mood, Matt still completed his presenting duties very well.

"The winner of the Best Visual Effects award is, 'Avatar', congratulations!"

With this, "Avatar" had finally vindicated itself, winning three out of nine nominations, making it the film crew with the most awards so far.

Wei Jin also applauded from the heart to offer his congratulations; the pioneering role "Avatar" played in special effects had allowed many films to reap the benefits, and the fact that future film box office records would continue to hit new highs was largely due to the benefits brought by the high ticket prices of 3D films and the new audiences they attracted.

After applauding, Wei Jin quietly left his seat; he had also been invited to serve as an Oscar presenter tonight.

There are certain requirements for what awards a presenter can present.

Generally speaking, presenters cannot present awards related to their own nominations; presenters for acting awards are all actors; and as the biggest awards of the Oscars, Best Director and Best Picture are usually presented by top industry heavyweights.

After such a screening process, the choices left for Wei Jin were not many, and he ultimately chose the Best Documentary Feature award; the winning work was titled "The Cove," which documented the cruel process of fishermen in a certain region of Japan capturing dolphins.

Domestic audiences might find the name unfamiliar just by hearing it, but later, Zhou Xingxing was inspired by this film to create a comedy that everyone should be very familiar with, which is that film "The Mermaid." —Perhaps wanting to continue seeing the battle between the couple, the subsequent Best Film Editing award was presented to "The Hurt Locker," and with this, the two films were completely tied in terms of the number of awards and their prestige.

The Best Foreign Language Film award was presented to "The Secret in Their Eyes" from Argentina.

Perhaps Matt was really lacking a bit of luck; the Best Actor award was presented to his old rival from the Golden Globe Awards, Jeff Bridges from "Crazy Heart," who was the main villain in the first "Iron Man" film.

However, this meant that Wei Jin's chances had invisibly increased a lot; the probability of winning two out of four nominations was much higher than winning three out of four.

The subsequent Best Actress award was presented to Sandra Bullock for "The Blind Side"; this babe's looks were quite in line with Wei Jin's aesthetic, it was just a pity she was a bit old.

At this moment, Wei Jin also began to feel nervous; for the last two nominations, Best Picture was basically out of the question, as that was North America's own territory, and the main public relations focus this time was placed on Best Director; if he didn't get it, the more than ten million US dollars in public relations fees would have gone completely down the drain.

Jing Tian was even more nervous, her palms sweating, praying to all the gods and buddhas to bless Wei Jin; if he failed to win, she would only be able to comfort him with her body tonight.

Perhaps moved by Jing Tian's spirit of self-sacrifice, the presenter Barbara Streisand announced the final answer.

"The winner of the Best Director award is, Wei, 'The Hunt', congratulations!"

It really happened; Wei Jin only felt a huge surprise filling his heart; it seemed the Oscar organizing committee was also unwilling to yield to feminism and had made a certain balance.

"Brother, Best Director, you did it."

Jing Tian stood up with immense joy to hug Wei Jin and offered him a sweet kiss.

At the same time, domestic audiences were also boiling over; although Li An had previously won the honor of Best Director for the Chinese with "Brokeback Mountain," he was ultimately different from Wei Jin.

Standing on the stage, Wei Jin appeared more excited than before; after all, this was the first Oscar for Best Director for Mainland China.

"Thank you to the Oscars for their fairness and inclusiveness, thank you to the judges for their recognition; the Best Director award is a great recognition of my personal ability; I will always maintain my original intention for film, and in the future, I will definitely bring more wonderful works to the audience and film fans; finally, I want to thank—"

With a one-minute speech, Wei Jin couldn't say too much, so he quickly finished his acceptance speech and returned to his seat, where Jing Tian was already impatiently playing with the Little Golden Man.

"Tian Tian, the trophies are all the same."

"They are different, the meaning they represent is different."

Wei Jin shook his head and did not argue with the young girl; at this moment, he had completely relaxed, and he no longer held any expectations for the Best Picture award.

There were no surprises; the Golden Horse Best Picture was presented to the highly favored "The Hurt Locker," and Katherine Bigelow surpassed the other 9 competitors to become the first female director in Oscar history to receive this honor, even though she won the award in the capacity of a Producer.

With this, the 82nd Academy Awards came to a complete end, leaving only the final celebration banquet segment.

Without a doubt, Katherine Bigelow was the well-deserved big winner tonight, and Wei Jin's luck was also very good.

As for James Cameron, sorry, the Oscars invited you here just to increase ratings and help carry the sedan chair. The second update of the day (End of this chapter)