Chapter 196: The True Meaning of Oscar Impact

Wu Yuchen could hear the powerful confidence, and even a bit of arrogance, from Miles' mouth.

However, Wu Yuchen didn't refute anything. To tell the truth, the current seven major Hollywood studios do have a great advantage over other companies. If they don't court death themselves, they can live very comfortably by relying on channels. For outsiders, even Wall Street, they dare to cheat and deceive. For rising newcomers like DreamWorks, they will suppress them, and when there is nothing to do, they will fight internally.

However, not courting death is impossible. The film industry is a high-risk industry, and many senior executives who come to power will use the power in their hands to seek benefits for themselves. Sometimes when they are on the head, the gambling nature is very big. MGM will be in debt like this in a few years and play itself to death.

Wu Yuchen has no interest in confronting the seven majors. Things that DreamWorks, established by local giants like Spielberg, can't do, he would only do if he were idle and had nothing to do. Things like overturning the rule of the Great Demon King are things that 18-year-old hot-blooded middle-school boys would do. He is already 22! What he needs to consider is how to obtain higher profits from Hollywood.

Afterward, Miles was affectionate to Wu Yuchen again: "Wu, I believe you have also experienced our Disney's sincerity from this cooperation. I look forward to you being able to establish a long-term cooperative relationship with Disney!"

Wu Yuchen smiled and shook his head: "Miles, I don't have the slightest clue about the next film yet. I have been filming movies for two consecutive years, and I also want to take a break. Let's talk about it after I have a clue about the next film."

"Oh, of course, with your talent, you will be Disney's guest of honor at any time!" Miles responded enthusiastically. For a director like Wu Yuchen who creates huge benefits in succession, he is a hot commodity in Hollywood.

Afterward, Wu Yuchen asked: "Miles, can you let the professionals at Disney who are responsible for Oscar impact come to me? I want to hear the detailed plan."

"Wu, I appreciate your tireless pursuit of your career! Don't worry, I will arrange for someone to come over immediately!"

Richard nodded: "Last year's *Shakespeare in Love*, Harvey Weinstein took people to visit many old men one by one, and it was by relying on these impression votes that he won the Oscar. This also brought new requirements to our work. In the past, we only needed to impact the award according to the normal process. But starting last year, these people are also the key objects we need to publicize."

"Of course, it's possible that these people are very lucky to vote for a film, allowing it to win the award~"

The four major wind vanes refer to the Golden Globe Awards, the British Academy Film Awards, the Critics Choice Awards, and the Guild Awards; while the thirteen sentry stations mainly refer to the thirteen film critic association awards, which are divided into four major, four minor, and five important towns. New York, Los Angeles, the National Board of Review, and the National Society of Film Critics are the four major; Boston, Chicago, Toronto, and London are the four minor; Las Vegas, Kansas City, Southeast, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Florida are the five important towns.

Wu Yuchen asked: "So you need so-called public relations?"

"So, we need to use the good word-of-mouth of *The Sixth Sense* to continuously deepen this impression for these judges."

"Richard, this should be my first time impacting the Oscars. Can I trouble you to introduce the various matters in detail?"

"Yes, the four major wind vanes and the thirteen sentry stations."

Afterward, Richard said again: "Wu Dao, our *The Sixth Sense* now has an advantage, which is that your film's popularity is already very large, and the word-of-mouth is also quite good."

"You also know that many judges are actually already old, and with insufficient energy, where do they have so much energy to finish all the films? In the eyes of some people, caring about their cats, dogs, flowers, and plants is more important than voting. It's not just one or two who vote with their eyes closed without watching the film." Richard shrugged and smiled.

"Respected Wu Dao, hello! I am Richard, and I will be fully responsible for the Oscar impact matters of *The Sixth Sense*~"

Wu Yuchen asked upon hearing this: "Doesn't that mean that sometimes luck is also very important?"

"But there is also a disadvantage: the film was released a bit early. Films determined to impact the Oscars generally choose to be released in the last two months of the year, just to leave a deep impression on the judges as much as possible. You have to know that time can dilute everything. Between two films of the same quality, the one seen most recently will definitely make people feel a deeper impression."

Seeing Wu Yuchen so concerned about impacting the Oscars, Miles was naturally happy to see it. Now the subsequent revenue of *The Sixth Sense* is all theirs, Disney's. If they can successfully impact the Oscars, it will have a huge promotional effect and create more profits for Disney.

Listening to the detailed data that Richard blurted out, it made people feel a professional temperament.

Although through his past life and some experiences in these few years, Wu Yuchen also knows a little bit about impacting the Oscars, but he definitely isn't as good as these professionals, so he wants to learn more information from his mouth.

Looking at the polite man in front of him, Wu Yuchen smiled and welcomed him in.

"Having 5,371 judges with voting rights doesn't mean you can receive 5,371 valid votes. In fact, the actual number of votes received by the academy every year will be less than this quantity. Some people forgot to vote, some people no longer pay attention to the Oscars, and some people haven't even watched the selected films."

Richard made a joke, then said seriously:

"Wu Dao, our task is to make our film get the recognition of these judges as much as possible, or even not necessarily recognition, but just let them remember the name of our film. When voting, if he feels you look familiar, it is very likely he will vote for you~"

Only an hour after Miles left, a middle-aged man in casual clothes came to visit.

"Of course, this is the meaning of my coming here~"

"Wu Dao, I believe you also know that the Oscars are voted by the judges of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. To date, the academy has a total of 5,371 members with voting qualifications, among whom the number of actors is the largest, 1,380; producers 450; feature film directors 354..."

Wu Yuchen expressed understanding, and then asked again: "Is that what you call the normal process?"

"Winning these awards doesn't mean you will definitely win an Oscar, but these activities, which include the most frequent exchanges among academy judges, will affect the vast majority of judges who are still active, so we need to participate as much as possible. Of course, if you can get important awards at the three major European film festivals, it will also have a certain bonus for the film."

"Everything we do, including going to public relations and attending cocktail parties and social events, is to make the film get the recognition of the judges as much as possible, and finally let them cast the votes in their hands."

Wu Yuchen finished listening to Richard's explanation, and he had a deeper understanding of impacting the Oscars in his brain. However, this gave him a strong sense of déjà vu, and he rubbed his chin and asked:

"Richard, to be honest, why do I feel that impacting the Oscars is about the same as the US presidential election? Both are for votes, then attacking one by one, using every means to make others choose themselves."

"Haha, Wu Dao, congratulations on touching the true meaning of Oscar impact. In fact, the essence is the same as the election!" Richard smiled and praised.

Wu Yuchen chatted with Richard for a while longer and was quite satisfied with his business ability, then asked: "Richard, do you usually take on Oscar impact business from the outside?"

"Of course, but we don't take just any film. At the very least, there must be a possibility of impacting the Oscars. For that kind of garbage film, unless the money given is really a lot, we can't guarantee anything about it~" Richard indicated that if the money is in place, anything is possible.

Wu Yuchen smiled and nodded, then reached out and shook hands with Richard: "Very happy to work with you in the future!"

"This is my honor! Wu Dao, I will tailor an Oscar impact plan for *The Sixth Sense*. You need to tell me your schedule, accurate to the week, so that..."

"Wait a minute, Richard, I have an Oscar impact film here that I want to hand over to you!" Wu Yuchen interrupted him with a smile.

"Hmm?" Richard revealed a strange look. Wasn't he discussing his *The Sixth Sense* with Wu Yuchen?

Miles was in a good mood. He had just negotiated *The Sixth Sense* in the morning, which was considered a smooth completion of the task assigned by the president. Next, relying on their Disney's powerful channels, they could earn a large amount of profit relying on this film.

At this time, the office door was knocked. Miles saw that the person who came was Richard, so he smiled and asked:

"Richard, how did you communicate with Wu Yuchen?"

Richard's expression was slightly strange as he said:

"Uh, Mr. Miles, I communicated very smoothly with Wu Dao. He is very willing to cooperate, but it seems there was a little accident..."

"Accident? What accident?" Miles asked curiously.

"Wu Dao has another film that wants to impact the Oscars, and he entrusted it to me."

"Another one!"

Miles was also very surprised upon hearing this, then he immediately stood up and asked quickly:

"Richard, what is this film? Are the distribution rights still there? Can we buy it?"

With *The Sixth Sense* here, Miles' first thought when hearing Wu Yuchen had another film was to buy it, or at least get the distribution rights. Since the other party entrusted them to impact the award, the probability of them winning it wasn't small.

"Mr. Miles, this is a pure Chinese-language film, and the main award it is impacting is Best Foreign Language Film."

Hearing Richard's explanation, Miles' enthusiasm disappeared by more than half, and he sat back in his chair again. So it was a foreign language film, which made him excited for nothing!

The box office of this kind of foreign language film in the United States is just like that. Like *Life Is Beautiful*, which won Best Foreign Language Film this year, the North American box office result was only 57.56 million, and this was already the best box office result for a foreign language film in history, which was far worse than the explosive box office of *The Sixth Sense*.

For a film with this kind of box office result, he, a senior executive, didn't need to ask personally. Let the people below worry about it.

However, Miles still revealed a smile: "No problem, since Wu Yuchen wants to impact the Oscars, then you try your best to help him. If he can win the award, it can also deepen the relationship between us!"

Miles wouldn't refuse this kind of thing at all. Besides, this was originally a profitable business, and Wu Yuchen still had to pay them public relations fees.

At the same time, he also sighed at Wu Yuchen's talent and ambition, actually impacting the awards with two films at the same Oscar. Who was the last person to do this?

After settling the copyright matter of *The Sixth Sense*, Wu Yuchen stayed in Los Angeles for a few more days. After discussing the subsequent Oscar impact plan with the public relations team, he directly boarded a plane to Venice.

That's right, it was Venice, because his film *Love* had already signed up to participate in the Venice Film Festival earlier. Actually, Richard suggested that Wu Yuchen participate in the Toronto International Film Festival, because compared to the Venice Film Festival, the North American local Toronto International Film Festival has a greater influence on Oscar judges, and its time just happened to conflict with this year's Venice Film Festival.

But Wu Yuchen thought about it and refused Richard's proposal. After all, compared to the Toronto International Film Festival, Venice has a much greater influence in China, and if he can win an important award this time participating in Venice, it will also have an effect on the Oscar impact.

He and Richard had already completed the plan for his personal award impact. After participating in Venice, he would return to the country first, let the film *Love* have a preview in the country, and meet the conditions for foreign language film entry. Then starting from October, he would take *Love* and *The Sixth Sense* to North America to impact them one by one according to the so-called normal process. Of course, he wouldn't participate in all of them, but he would participate as much as possible.

To tell the truth, his experience of taking two films to impact the awards alone is still very rare, which also made Richard click his tongue in wonder.

Wu Yuchen came to participate in the Venice Film Festival this time, which can be said to have come alone. The male and female leads of the film *Love*, Ge Cunzhuang and Wang Danfeng, are both over seventy. It's too tossing to let them cross the ocean, and it's not necessary.

As for Gong Li, if she were the female lead, then the "Gong Emperor" would definitely follow. But this time she only played a female supporting role with not many scenes, so she would be embarrassed to come over to walk the red carpet. Therefore, the only person with weight in this entire crew who came was Wu Yuchen.

However, even though Wu Yuchen came alone, the organizer was very enthusiastic in entertaining him. After all, Wu Yuchen is now a world-renowned director, not only winning the Berlin Golden Bear and Best Director, but also having great fame in commerce. Recently, his *The Sixth Sense* has achieved a sensational box office in North America, which has already spread in the world film scene. After all, Hollywood is the world film center.

For art films by big directors like Wu Yuchen, the three major film festivals are all competing for them. His initiative to come to participate in Venice naturally made the organizer extremely happy.

Wu Yuchen's arrival also made many film merchants move upon hearing the wind. Just the three words "Wu Yuchen" now already have great drawing power! ===== CHAPTER 197 =====