Chapter 289: A Historic Moment for the Oscars

By the time Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly released their hug, Wu Yuchen could already see her shedding happy tears; he didn't know if this woman was acting or expressing true feelings.

To tell the truth, he had always felt that the acting skills of many actresses on the podium were much higher than on the set. Last year's Halle Berry was like that; that was truly emotional.

After Nicole Kidman walked onto the stage, she elegantly wiped the tears from her face and said with a slightly crying voice: "Jennifer told me not to cry, but I really couldn't help it! I'm sorry!"

After speaking, she couldn't help but cover her mouth and nose again, turned around to tidy up her makeup, and off-stage immediately offered a round of encouraging applause and cheers.

The camera also gave a shot to Jennifer Connelly off-stage. She smiled and clapped gently as if they were good sisters, showing off the friendship between the two to the American audience.

After Nicole Kidman turned around, she had put on a smile again and mentioned Wu Yuchen as soon as she came up:

"Heartfelt gratitude to Wu Yuchen. He boldly cast me and gave me a lot of help during filming. He is really the best director in the world!"

The live camera also gave a shot to Wu Yuchen. He was smiling faintly, giving everyone a feeling of composure. In an instant, all the actresses in the audience firmly imprinted this sentence of Nicole Kidman in their hearts.

First there was Hearing Gong Li who won Best Supporting Actress, and then there was Nicole Kidman who won Best Actress. These two important actress awards were swept by Wu Yuchen today.

And if you add Jennifer Connelly's Best Actress nomination, as well as the Best Supporting Actress she won last year, Wu Yuchen's ability to promote actresses had been perfectly demonstrated through these few Oscars!

How could this not make these Hollywood actresses' hearts flutter? The Oscars! The glory that all filmmakers and actors in the world were chasing!

"Thank you, Wu Dao, for helping my goddess realize her dream!"

"The sixth little golden man! Wu Dao is strong!"

"Isn't that so? Just now, the Oscar Best Actress thanked Wu Dao as soon as she opened her mouth! This was Wu Yuchen personally promoting her; she will probably be grateful for life!"

"Won another Best Original Screenplay. This year can be considered complete. I don't feel there is much hope for the last two awards."

Far away on the internet in China, as Wu Yuchen won this award, a group of netizens was also discussing it lively.

"Yeah, watching such a big beautiful star opening and closing her mouth to thank Wu Yuchen in front of the whole world, I really feel so cool! Very face-saving! Wu Dao has really gained face for us Chinese!"

Immediately following was Best Original Screenplay. Wu Yuchen was nominated again with *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*. This time, it didn't let him down again:

Wu Yuchen smiled and said softly: "I'm looking forward to it~"

Tonight's Oscars had already entered the second half of the second half by this time, which was the climax segment. Each subsequent award was actually related to Wu Yuchen.

"Hi, for Best Director, refer to Wu Dao's previous double nomination situation, and Li Ang. After all, he is Chinese, so he is still at a disadvantage!"

Not to mention that Wu Yuchen's films themselves had already become a signboard, bringing their own appeal and exposure. Even if he couldn't win an Oscar, at least he could achieve success commercially. Which actor could refuse this?

Not to mention actresses, even actors were very tempted. You know, Wu Yuchen previously helped the actors in his films win one nomination each for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor with *The Sixth Sense* and *A Beautiful Mind*. And the reason why they couldn't win those two times was because of special circumstances; the little boy was because he was too young, and Russell Crowe was because he had just won Best Actor the previous year with *Gladiator*, making it difficult to win consecutively. Otherwise, if it were someone else, they might have really been able to take it.

This award, which was not light in weight, was a small surprise for Wu Yuchen, because he himself hadn't spent too much energy on this award, and it once again showed Hollywood his title as a "Master of Screenwriting"!

Well, it used to be "Creative Genius." With the improvement of Wu Yuchen's status, he had now been promoted to "Creative Master."

"Nicole Kidman is indeed beautiful. Among white people, she is also top-notch~"

The next award was Best Adapted Screenplay. He was nominated with *The Hours*. However, this award didn't fall into his hands but was won by *The Pianist*.

"The winner... Wu Yuchen, *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*!"

"*The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* is a foreign language film. Getting a nomination for Best Picture is already amazing; it's impossible to give the award. Last year, Wu Yuchen's *A Beautiful Mind* could win the award because it was an English film. Only *The Hours* has some hope, but I see American analysis saying *Gangs of New York* and *The Pianist* have the most hope for Best Picture. So, the last two awards are just for watching."

Now that he had reached Wu Yuchen's step, he actually didn't need to care about most people's thoughts. For example, when he first arrived in Hollywood, filming *Frequency*, he had to play mind games with Stallone and spend energy half-coaxing him. Changing to now, which actor would dare to put on airs in front of him?

After the new Best Actress came down from the stage, she enthusiastically whispered in Wu Yuchen's ear: "Thank you, Wu, I will repay you!"

In short, the actors in the hall, regardless of gender, as long as they had ambitions for the Oscars, were wishing they could get connected with Wu Yuchen at this moment. If they could really get his favor, they might have great hope for the Oscars!

At this very moment, Wu Yuchen seemed to have completely failed to notice these "monsters and ghosts" with blue eyes and golden hair in the hall staring at him like Tang Monk meat, listening to Nicole Kidman's thank-you speech on stage on his own.

"Ah? Why do you say that? Wu Yuchen has nominations for the last two awards!"

"Is that so! Sigh, I was thinking that Wu Dao had two nominations for the last two awards, so there was quite a bit of hope..."

"Be content. Wu Yuchen has already won quite a few awards, and he even helped Hearing Gong Li win Best Supporting Actress~"

Thanks to the influence brought by Wu Yuchen, quite a few people had known the Oscars in great detail in recent years and analyzed them logically. Although many people had full confidence in Wu Yuchen, quite a few people had already lowered their expectations for the future and were satisfied with the current gains.

Wu Yuchen at the scene didn't know the discussions thousands of miles away. At this time, he was focusing all his attention on Harrison Ford, who had just taken the stage. The male lead of the *Star Wars* and *Indiana Jones* series was already 60 years old and still looked handsome and stylish. What he was about to present was Best Director!

"From the very beginning, when people used art and science to create films and bring them into our lives, the person at the helm was the director! The candidates for Best Director this year are..."

"*The Pianist*, Roman Polanski;"

"*Gangs of New York*, Martin Scorsese;"

"*The Hours*, Wu Yuchen;"

"*The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*, Wu Yuchen;"

"*Talk to Her*, Pedro Almodóvar."

Wu Yuchen looked at the five portraits on the big screen, two of which were him. This was already his second double nomination. It was no exaggeration to say it was unprecedented.

Not only the people currently sitting in the theatre, but even many viewers watching the live broadcast could remember that this scene seemed to have happened once two years ago.

This was also an advantage Wu Yuchen deliberately created. At that time, the main purpose of choosing to take time to film *The Hours* was for now. He didn't win the last double nomination, so he came for another double nomination, which was also deliberately reminding those judges: you can't ignore a director who has won double nominations twice, right?

This time, for this Best Director, Wu Yuchen could really be said to have done everything perfectly. In addition to the double nomination, he also chose to film an anti-war theme that followed the trend of the times, specifically found Spielberg to divert a portion of Jewish power, secretly kept spreading scandals about his opponent Polanski, and chose to accept help from Disney.

To tell the truth, Wu Yuchen himself felt that he had already done everything to the best. He might never have another chance to be this close to Best Director again in the future. If he still couldn't win this Best Director this time, he really planned to give up and focus on filming his commercial films.

At this time, Old Martin had a similar mood to Wu Yuchen. He had hit the Oscars more times than Wu Yuchen, and this *Gangs of New York* was also his painstaking work.

And in his view, Polanski, who had a large group of Jews behind him and was the most threatening, had such big black spots himself that he definitely had no hope of winning. The only one who threatened him was Wu Yuchen, which was equivalent to a choice between two this year. It was his most hopeful time!

Even Polanski, who didn't dare to step into America, was watching the live broadcast nervously in Europe at this time. Although he couldn't come to Hollywood to do PR himself, a large number of Jewish compatriots were actively running around for him. He knew how much say they, the Jews, had in Hollywood.

When Spielberg came to find *The Pianist* and said he hoped they would focus on Best Picture, this was the Oscars! They wanted Best Picture, and they also wanted Best Director!

The only one who was relatively calm might be the director of *Talk to Her*, Pedro. Their PR power during the Oscars was insufficient, and he also knew that his influence couldn't compare to the other three, so there should be no hope.

"Every one of them is a very excellent director with unparalleled outstanding talent, but there is only one winner tonight."

Harrison Ford opened the envelope and took out the note: "The winner is..."

Subsequently, he looked up and announced loudly: "Wu Yuchen, *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas*!"

The celebratory music sounded immediately, followed by intense applause and cheers in the grand theatre. At this time, the camera was aimed at Wu Yuchen. One could see on the big screen that the people on both sides of him were all happily congratulating him.

And Wu Yuchen himself didn't seem very excited; his smile just expanded a bit more than before, and the whole person still looked elegant and composed.

The moment Wu Yuchen heard he won, he naturally felt a lift in his heart. The first thought that came to his mind was that he finally took it. He thought of the various experiences since the year he started the Oscar campaign: double nomination, being backstabbed by Disney, later fighting with Harvey, double nomination again this year, vertical and horizontal alliances, various means, and now finally taking it. At this moment, it seemed to be right before his eyes.

"My dear! Best Director! You are indeed the best one!" Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Connelly were both scrambling to send hugs to Wu Yuchen.

And on the other side, Hearing Gong Li also excitedly shouted to Wu Yuchen: "Wu Dao, Best Director! You brought back the Oscar for Best Director for our China! The first Best Director for us Chinese, the first Best Director for the yellow race!"

Whether it was Hearing Gong Li, Chen Baoguo, or crew members like Huang Huang Xiao Ming and Shu Chang, everyone was extremely excited now. After all, before this, they actually all had quite a few doubts about whether Wu Yuchen could win the Best Director award.

You know, the Oscars were someone else's territory. The Best Director award had always been the world of white people; even black people had never touched it. But now, Wu Yuchen, a yellow-skinned person, had really won the Oscar for Best Director! This could be said to be a historic moment for the Oscars!

This was definitely a big surprise for the *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* crew!

At this time, the *Hero* crew was also cheering loudly. After all, Wu Yuchen's award was of extraordinary significance. This was winning glory for all Chinese people, winning glory for China. They, as Chinese compatriots, were naturally happy.

Old Mouzi clapped while sighing in his heart. Not only did he lose to the other party in Best Foreign Language Film, but now the other party had directly taken Best Director. This time, he really lost with conviction!

Wu Yuchen deliberately walked along the *The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas* side, then hugged or shook hands with the people in the crew one by one.

The intense applause had been continuing. Many people even stood up to applaud to express their respect, such as Spielberg, Soderbergh, Old Martin, Leonardo, Russell Crowe, etc., without any intention of complaining that Wu Yuchen was wasting time or urging him.

After a while, Wu Yuchen finally stepped onto the podium and took the trophy from Harrison Ford's hand.

"Congratulations, Wu Dao! If you need anything, you can contact me at any time~" Harrison Ford smiled and whispered.

"Thank you, Mr. Ford!" Wu Yuchen replied politely, then walked to the microphone.

He looked at the little golden man in his hand, looked up, and said to everyone off-stage with a smile:

"Sorry, I didn't write a speech. I wrote it twice before, but I never managed to win this award~"

When Wu Yuchen said this, a burst of laughter erupted from below, as everyone knew he was referring to his two previous Best Director nominations, which both ended with him just being a runner-up without taking home the award.

Nowadays, Wu Yuchen was really an old bird at the Oscars. Even though he won Best Director, he was still calm and composed, and even had the mood to make jokes, fully showing his humor and composure, and also winning the love of many viewers in front of the television.

Subsequently, Wu Yuchen continued to say:

"Life always has moments of epiphany, but now that I have won this award, my brain is a bit muddled. I only know that I have received infinite love and encouragement from the Oscar judges, colleagues in the crew, peers, people I admire, and everyone present. This means a lot to me. Thank you very much!"

The audience gave friendly laughter and cheers. After it quieted down, Wu Yuchen's expression gradually turned serious and he opened his mouth:

"This is really too happy, but at the same time, it is also really sad, because at this moment of accepting this award, many people have been hurt by war.

The process of filming this movie made me especially able to realize the suffering brought to people by war, the inhuman evil acts, and the destruction of war. These sometimes make me fall into painful sleepless nights. This is really very bad.

I want to thank my parents. They taught me many truths about war and life, which have benefited me a lot. Thank you to China, the filming location of this film, the place where this painful history happened. I received a lot of help during the filming process!"

Wu Yuchen paused, then scanned the people off-stage:

"For the ongoing war, I pray for a quick and effective solution.

Whether it is those whose homes have been infringed upon, or those young people who can only obey orders and step onto the battlefield under military orders; whether you believe in Jesus or Allah, whether it is Sanqing or Buddha, whether you are a theist or an atheist, I hope you can be blessed!

Sincerely, wish for world peace!"

After speaking, Wu Yuchen bowed slightly to the audience.

Suddenly, everyone in the entire grand theatre stood up and sent thunderous applause and respect to him and his declaration calling for peace, which lasted for a long time! ===== CHAPTER 290 =====