Chapter 171: One After Another

Every year, Harvey Weinstein's Miramax Films holds a so-called Miramax cocktail party, "maxawards," on the eve of the Oscar awards.

Yesterday, Cao Yang was also invited to participate.

When the banquet was about to end, Harvey Weinstein put his arm around Renée Zellweger's shoulder, came to Cao Yang's side, let go, and introduced with a smile.

"This is Miss Renée Zellweger; she was also nominated for the Oscar Best Supporting Actress for *Cold Mountain*."

Harvey Weinstein clinked glasses with Cao Yang, then said: "*Cold Mountain* is a key project controlled by Miramax; this time it received seven Oscar nominations and is also one of the big favorites this year."

He drank the remaining wine in the glass, handed the glass to Renée Zellweger, who was always smiling beside him, and waved for her to leave.

Renée Zellweger didn't show any displeasure, nodded to Cao Yang with a smile, and left.

At this moment, a sentence suddenly appeared in Cao Yang's mind: called to come and waved to go; that's probably Renée Zellweger's situation now.

But some people, in order to get ahead, are not ashamed instead.

"Cao, I am a straightforward person; this year for *The Bad Milk*, I have already given up on *Cold Mountain*; seven nominations, I only want one Best Supporting Actress, so, sorry, you can understand, right?"

What can I understand?

Harvey Weinstein's words definitely mean more than the surface.

His apology probably means that in the competition for Best Supporting Actress between Renée Zellweger and Anne Hathaway, he chose to campaign for Renée Zellweger.

This is understandable; looking at Renée Zellweger's appearance, she must have paid a lot of price.

Moreover, *Cold Mountain* is a project controlled by Miramax, while *The Bad Milk* is a project cooperated by Columbia and Miramax; he would definitely choose *Cold Mountain*.

What about the other meaning?

Claiming credit?

"Cao, you also know that Warner spent a lot of effort for *The Lord of the Rings 3*; they want to reproduce the glory of *Titanic* and sweep everything; we will try our best to stop it, but it's very difficult; you should be prepared."

Cao Yang nodded; he has interest connections with Columbia, these definitely cannot be told to Harvey.

However, wanting to win a major award from the competition of *The Lord of the Rings 3* is indeed doubly difficult this year.

"Cao, I heard you filmed a Chinese fantasy film, and it's about to be completed?"

Cao Yang nodded and said with a smile: "Harvey, in China, my status is equivalent to Zhang Yimou's; in Hollywood, it's not something he can compare to; you should also understand what I mean."

Don't play tricks on me; I know all your little tricks.

Harvey Weinstein laughed, without any embarrassment, and said: "Cao, you are a smart person; don't worry, I will pay first; after all, we still have to cooperate in the future.

How about this, after *Hero* is released, if the box office is ideal, I will buy the copyright for North America and several other places at a price higher than the market."

Through this banquet, Cao Yang knew at the time that Anne Hathaway's Best Supporting Actress should have no hope; this award would nine times out of ten be won by Renée Zellweger.

Sure enough, his conjecture was verified one by one, including losing to *The Lord of the Rings 3* in several technical awards; these were all within expectations.

What was a bit unexpected was that Gu Changwei won Best Cinematography.

Through the shots projected on the big screen, one could see that Old Gu himself was also surprised.

A moment ago he was still smiling, without too much expectation, and a moment later the presenter read his name, and he was obviously stunned for a moment, and a bit dazed.

Cao Yang stood up, turned around, and applauded him with a smile.

Don't fucking be stunned; the whole world is watching; don't be embarrassing, hurry up.

Old Gu only reacted when he saw Cao Yang applauding him; he quickly stood up, very excited and emotional. Although he hates the Americans and estimates he suffered quite a blow during those years there, he still highly treasures the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

This is Gu Changwei's second Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography; the last time was the 66th Oscars in 93, when he was nominated for Best Cinematography for *Farewell My Concubine*, but unfortunately didn't win in the end.

This time, with Cao Yang's *The Bad Milk*, he finally got his wish and won the Oscar Best Cinematography.

This is not the first time a Chinese person has won this award.

Chinese-American James Wong Howe, in 1956, won the 28th Academy Award for Best Cinematography for *The Rose Tattoo*, becoming the first Chinese person to win an Academy Award.

In 1964, for *Hud*, he won the 36th Academy Award for Best Cinematography again, winning twice.

The second Chinese person to win the Oscar Best Cinematography was Peter Pau.

In 2001, for *Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon*, he won the 73rd Academy Award for Best Cinematography, the first non-American Chinese cinematographer to win this honor.

And Gu Changwei is the third Chinese person to win this honor, the second Chinese person to win this award, and the first person in the mainland to win this award.

"Director Cao, although we are our own people, I still want to say thank you, thank you!"

Old Gu hugged Cao Yang and said excitedly.

!

"Don't be nervous when you go up; think of whatever you say; if you can't think of it, just say thank you."

Cao Yang saw Old Gu so excited, fearing he would go up and be embarrassing, so he hurriedly exhorted.

"Mm mm, I remember."

Remember a hammer!

Old Gu went up, his hands and feet were a bit stiff, took the Oscar handed to him by the presenter, said "Mm" to the microphone, and then got stuck, stunned for ten or twenty seconds, not knowing what he was thinking.

The audience and guests below thought this guy wanted applause, so they started to applaud very givingly.

Old Gu finally reacted, and after the applause stopped, he started to say his speech.

"I was just thinking, who should I thank first?"

Old Gu forcibly saved face, "Later I thought, there are too many people to thank, and the ranking is not in any particular order."

I don't know if the foreigners can understand his "ranking is not in any particular order," the Chinese teasing way.

"First of all, thank Director Cao Yang; he is my little junior brother; although we are not in the same major, I think he is my little junior brother. He is the pride of our school, a genius director... in short, I am very grateful to him..."

Cao Yang wanted to cover his face a bit; this guy really said whatever he thought of, without logic, upside down, but it didn't matter; at least he didn't take out a piece of paper and read from it.

The next Best Adapted Screenplay was again taken away by *The Lord of the Rings 3* without any suspense.

After Best Adapted Screenplay, it was Best Original Screenplay; Cao Yang was nominated for this award.

In the case of probably not winning Best Director, Cao Yang still had expectations for this award; his biggest competitor was Sofia Coppola.

Sofia Coppola is the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola, the latter directed the famous *The Godfather*.

Now it depends on whether the Coppola family's connections are wider, or if the Columbia alliance is more skilled at campaigning for awards like Harvey.

The presenter opened the envelope, looked at it, looked at the audience, and said to the microphone: "Cao Yang, *The Bad Milk*."

It seems that handing the film adaptation rights of *District 9* to Columbia was right; they really put in a lot of effort this time.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 172 =====