Chapter 181: Oscar Grand Award PR

In original history, Inception received a total of eight nominations at the 83rd Oscar.

It ultimately won four major awards: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects, Best Sound Editing, and Best Visual Effects.

This time, the film was released six years early, and it competed for the 77th Oscar.

According to data from the Super Microcomputer, the big winner of this Oscar was Morgan Freeman–starring *Million Dollar Baby*, which has a Douban rating of 8.8 and still good reputation.

Then, this film was remade in 2014 as *One Hundred Yen Love*, telling the story of a 32-year-old hikikomori who, after a quarrel with her sister, moves out of the family and faces a series of setbacks, finally changing herself through boxing.

This Japanese film has a Douban rating of 8.3 and also won multiple major awards in Japan, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress.

By 2024, Jia Ling invested 350 million yuan to remake it into *Hot and Spicy*, which grossed 3.46 billion yuan at the Spring Festival box office, earning a Douban rating of 7.7, and the reputation...

So, many things need to be explained by metaphysics; box office performance is like that, and award outcomes are too.

Inception, released six years early, it's really hard to say how many Oscars it could win.

Then many academy members would find it strange, because the vast majority of them did not vote for it.

The film only needs to be screened for one week in commercial theaters in Luoshanji County, then the relevant documents are sent to the academy, without spending any money.

That year's Best Cinematography went to *The Aviator*, and Best Visual Effects to *Spider-Man 2*; the competition was still quite strong.

Moreover, under normal circumstances, two members from the same field are also required to provide recommendations.

This Oscar ceremony is truly worth looking forward to.

As for the award selection mechanism, it is also quite complicated.

For Best Picture, the winner must receive more than half of the first-place votes, using a preferential voting system.

The Oscar has no judges; all awards are chosen by vote of the 6,000 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

To become an academy member, one must be an outstanding figure in some field of film.

For technical awards (such as Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects, etc.), experts from the academy's different branches vote, and the five films receiving the most votes get nominated.

For other awards, no majority is required; the highest vote-getter wins.

As for award nominations, they are relatively easy.

Therefore, if the votes are relatively scattered, some films could win with just 25% of the vote.

So, Oscar awards have room for manipulation.

Worth noting is that The Aviator stars Leonardo DiCaprio, the original male lead of Inception, and the film's male protagonist Howard Hughes is the prototype of the Marvel universe's soul figure Iron Man.

And when a film or filmmaker receives a nomination, the academy's entire membership then votes to select the final winner.

The founder of Miramax, Harvey Weinstein, is one of the masters; the films My Left Foot and Cinema Paradiso were the first tough battles he fought in the Oscar competition.

He persuaded the director and producer of My Left Foot to move directly from Ireland to Luoshanji to live, took them to various Haolaiwu parties, and tirelessly promoted his film.

At the same time, he had people closely monitor every Oscar judge, sparing no effort to make sure they saw his films.

Harvey had people set up screens in retirement homes for filmmakers, because many Oscar judges live there, even if some of them are too old to care for themselves.

Harvey even set up screens on the beaches of Hawaii, because during Christmas and New Year many Oscar judges vacation there, and his agents constantly shadowed them.

In the end, My Left Foot earned its male lead the Best Actor award, and Cinema Paradiso also won the Best Foreign Language Film award.

Because the films he produced and distributed were nominated for the Oscar more than 300 times, taking home over 70 statuettes, Harvey is regarded by many filmmakers as the "Oscar God", and some domestic filmmakers are also somewhat superstitious about him.

In original history, the Beimei distribution of films such as Infernal Affairs, Shaolin Soccer, House of Flying Daggers, Hero, Martial Arts, and The Grandmaster was all handled by him.

The Grandmaster, Farewell My Concubine, and Hero also, under his strong promotion, attracted international awards' attention, becoming the Chinese-language films closest to the Oscar.

However, Harvey's tactics are vicious and his reputation poor; Feng Xiaogang once denounced him as a fraud at a film festival.

His usual trick is to buy the Beimei distribution rights of Chinese-language films; he initially offered eight million, and upon seeing that, others wouldn't compete with him.

He then gave a $200,000 deposit; after the film was finished, he said he didn't want it, wanted to return it, and by then it was too late to sell it to someone else. Then, when he came back to you, he would offer only $1,000,000.

When releasing The Matrix, Harvey also tried to use this trick on Jiang Heng, but he directly rejected it.

Upon hearing that Inception would compete for the Oscar, Harvey again clung like a plaster, pitching his PR methods to Jiang Heng and insisting it could guarantee the film an award.

Jiang Heng never doubted Harvey's ability, but he couldn't respect his character, and after arriving in Luoshanji he once again refused Harvey's request for representation.

The latter, offended, threatened to make Jiang Heng walk away from this Oscar with nothing.

Jiang Heng couldn't be intimidated, and he shot back, "If you make me come away empty-handed, I'll ruin your reputation."

Then Harvey quieted down.

He has done too many bad things, and he really fears being targeted by wealthy tycoons.

On Jiang Heng's side, he began to look for another PR team; after hearing the quotes, he got a bit of a headache.

At other film festivals, usually a few or a dozen judges select an award, making PR costs relatively low.

By contrast, the Oscar has 6,000 members voting, which seems fairer, but the actual result is increased PR expenses.

Especially for independent films with budgets under thirty million, gaining an Oscar nomination often means millions or even tens of millions of dollars in box office revenue, and winning further boosts box office and subsequent disc sales; with so many production companies involved in PR, it has become a smooth business model.

Jiang Heng, too, had to follow local customs here.

After communicating with several specialized operations teams, he ultimately chose a relatively reliable one, paid the deposit, signed the contract, and the team began operations.

Inception is a commercial blockbuster, and its annual box office in the Beimei region is projected to rank fourth.

But these box office receipts come mainly from young people, while many of the academy members who vote for the Oscar are elderly, and many of them may not have even seen Inception in theaters.

To win their votes, the operations team specially sent people to set up screens in nursing homes, on Hawaii beaches, at winter ski resorts, and other places where academy members frequently go, striving to help Inception secure an Oscar.

(End of chapter)