Chapter 344: Awards Ceremony

At this stage, there is a specialized term in the country called "Charging for the Oscars."

This "Charging for the Oscars" has nothing to do with the Olympic Games; it specifically refers to Chinese films making a push for the Academy Awards.

Every year, the two sides of the strait and the three regions each select a film to represent the Mainland, Xiangjiang, and Wanyan, respectively, to charge for the Oscars.

Of course, the primary target remains the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Before Cao Yang went to Hollywood to make films, whenever his films won an award at one of the three major European film festivals, the Film Bureau would routinely ask if he was willing to represent the Mainland to compete for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

If Cao Yang agreed, relying on the massive advantage of having won a major European award, there would be nothing left for other directors to do; they wouldn't have to rack their brains or "fight to the death" for this spot.

However, Cao Yang has never been very interested in the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, so he never agreed to represent the country to compete for this award.

After Cao Yang entered Hollywood and successively won major awards like the Oscar for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay, even when *Black Swan* won the Golden Lion at Venice last time, the Film Bureau stopped asking him.

They know that Cao Yang cares even less for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film now—even though it remains an award that domestic directors break their heads trying to get.

Last year, two highly influential Chinese-language films were released domestically, both by major directors: Zhang Yimou’s *Curse of the Golden Flower* and Feng Xiaogang’s *The Banquet*.

Both films were qualified to represent the Mainland to compete for this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film; however, the Mainland only selects one film each year, so the scene that media and reporters love to see happened.

*Curse of the Golden Flower* and *The Banquet* started fighting.

Media reporters stirred up trouble, fearing it wouldn't be lively enough; this can be considered a "retained program" of the annual domestic media carnival.

As for their influence among the public, meaning ordinary viewers, Feng Xiaogang is actually about the same as Zhang Yimou; people recognize them both as major domestic directors.

However, in terms of official influence, they are not on the same level; the only person who can compete with Zhang Yimou domestically now is the great poet Chen Kaige.

Of course, Cao Yang is in a league of his own and does not participate in the competition; both the authorities and the media in the country acknowledge this.

Feng Xiaogang’s official influence is at least one tier lower than Zhang Yimou’s, not to mention that the box office of *The Banquet* was not as good as *Curse of the Golden Flower*.

Therefore, with almost no suspense, Feng Xiaogang was out.

*Curse of the Golden Flower* was the only film representing the Mainland to compete for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year.

However, nearly half of the investment in *The Banquet* came from the Xiangjiang company Media Asia, and with the Xiangjiang film industry being essentially dead, they really had no other films worth presenting.

Thus, *The Banquet* changed tracks and, without any suspense, became the best choice for the Hong Kong Film Producers Association to represent Xiangjiang in competing for this year's Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

This was truly a bit unexpected, but thinking about it, it was within reason.

If *The Banquet* were to defeat *Curse of the Golden Flower* in the Oscar selection, not to mention winning the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, even just entering the nomination list would be interesting.

At the very least, for Feng Xiaogang, it would count as an inspirational film and a "cool" novel plot; he probably dreams of such a scenario happening.

What a pity.

It is regrettable that whether it was *Curse of the Golden Flower* representing the Mainland, *The Banquet* representing Xiangjiang, or *Deep Sea* representing Wanyan, all were eliminated and did not make the Oscar nomination list for Best Foreign Language Film.

The fact that none of them made the nomination list is actually not a bad thing.

The key is that *Curse of the Golden Flower* is somewhat special.

Because American International Bank and Hong Kong Bank participated in some of the funding, and the North American copyright was in cooperation with Sony Pictures Classics, it became eligible to compete for other Oscar awards.

What broke Feng Xiaogang’s defense was that although *Curse of the Golden Flower* didn't get a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, it did receive a nomination for Best Costume Design.

The lifelong competitive Feng Xiaogang lost to Zhang Yimou once again.

This is also the reason why Feng Xiaogang seemed a bit happy after hearing from Cao Yang that *Inception* had many nominations but would be hard-pressed to win major awards—I can't be the only one with a wounded little heart, and I can't be the only one whose defenses are always broken.

Although Feng Xiaogang’s defenses were broken again after Cao Yang explained that it was difficult to win major awards because the box office was too high, his original intention was to find some self-comfort and balance.

The domestic media also reported heavily before the New Year on Cao Yang’s *Inception* receiving nine Oscar nominations.

However, even though everyone believes *Inception* is a classic, perhaps even a film worthy of being recorded in film history, the industry was not very optimistic about how many awards it could win this time.

Just as the famous film critic Zhou Liming said while guest-hosting a program on Sina:

"The Oscars are actually similar to most film festivals, just like our Golden Rooster; if a film’s box office is too high, it is automatically categorized as a commercial film, even if the film has very high artistic value.

It cannot be denied that *Inception* is a very classic film; it possesses exceptionally brilliant watchability, innovative storytelling, and also has exploratory depth and humanistic concern.

I checked the ratings on the famous American film review website IMDb, and *Inception* is still as high as 9.0, ranking in the top ten of the film charts.

But it cannot be denied that the box office of *Inception* is too high, which makes many Oscar judges subconsciously categorize it as a commercial film.

So I think everyone shouldn't have too high expectations; just treat it with a normal heart."

Regardless of whether *Inception* can win an award, it did receive nine Oscar nominations, and the media still reported on it extensively.

It’s only because it’s Cao Yang; his *Milk* received ten Oscar nominations, and *District 9* received seven; nine nominations now is no longer a fresh piece of news.

If it were any other Chinese director, if their directed film received nine Oscar nominations, it would definitely be a major event that would shock the entire Chinese entertainment circle.

Perhaps because there was a slip-up in the CCTV broadcast last year and the live stream hosted by Sina attracted too much attention, Sohu was jealous and also organized a live stream this time.

Unlike Sina, they didn't invite guests to objectively analyze and guess the winners, but instead focused on "jianghu grudges."

This kind of gossip is actually very watchable and attracted many netizens to watch.

Sohu also invited three guests, each representing one side, to "argue" about who could become the biggest winner of this year's Oscars.

It’s mainly because this year's Oscars were "powerful," allowing Sohu to seize the hot topic.

Just look at the nomination list for the 79th Oscars, and you will know how deep these "grudges" are.

Cao Yang’s *Inception* received nine nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing.

Martin Scorsese’s *The Departed*, a remake of the Xiangjiang film *Infernal Affairs*, received four major award nominations at the 79th Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.

Clint Eastwood’s *Letters from Iwo Jima* received four major award nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Sound Editing.

Does this scene look familiar?

At the 77th Oscars, it was Cao Yang competing against Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood for major awards like Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor.

Cao Yang’s *District 9* received three major award nominations: Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Clint Eastwood’s *Million Dollar Baby* won three major awards: Best Picture, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actor.

Although Martin Scorsese’s *The Aviator* won the most awards, taking home five, they were all "minor awards," and in terms of weight, they couldn't compare to Cao Yang and Clint Eastwood.

The most important awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Actress—were "divided up" by Cao Yang and Clint Eastwood.

This time, the three of them met again at the Oscars, and they were competing for major awards like Best Picture and Best Director again, which is naturally a huge highlight.

Cao Yang estimates that perhaps this is the reason why Oscar President Sid Ganis called him and told him he must come to attend the Oscars.

Before Sid Ganis was elected as the Academy President and Oscar President, he was a senior executive at Columbia, and when Cao Yang was filming *District 9*, he served as the executive producer of *District 9*.

At that time, the two worked quite well together, and their relationship was good.

Cao Yang feels that since it is difficult for him to win major awards, Sid Ganis should give him some "compensation" in other "minor awards."

The Oscars did indeed treat the "grudges" between Cao Yang, Martin Scorsese, and Clint Eastwood as one of the highlights of this year's Oscars, and many American media outlets reported on this matter.

Whether it is us Chinese or the Americans, everyone likes to watch the excitement; this is probably one of the commonalities of human nature.

It is very rare for three major directors to meet so coincidentally at the Oscars and all be nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, so the media used many very exaggerated words when reporting.

Things like "Director Martin’s Revenge," "Clint’s Determination for Best Director," and "Cao Yang Fighting Alone Against Two Old-School Hollywood Directors."

Anyway, they did whatever would attract attention.

The reason for the topic "Cao Yang Fighting Alone Against Two Old-School Hollywood Directors" is because *Inception* received nine nominations, while *The Departed* and *Letters from Iwo Jima* each had four.

The two films combined still didn't have as many as *Inception*.

On February 25th at 5:00 PM local time in the United States, 9:00 AM on the 26th Beijing time, the 79th Academy Awards were held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.

The star power on the red carpet for this year's Oscars was still very dazzling.

Johnny Depp received another nomination for Best Actor for *Inception*; even though he knew it was almost impossible to win, he definitely had to come.

Leonardo DiCaprio also came; he also received a nomination for Best Actor.

What is interesting is that although he was the male lead of *The Departed*, he did not receive a Best Actor nomination for that film.

The film that got Leonardo DiCaprio a Best Actor nomination was similar in genre to *The Departed*, also a crime film: *Blood Diamond*.

Sometimes it is very strange; where there is Leonardo DiCaprio, there is Kate Winslet, and she also received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for *Little Children*.

In this film, Kate Winslet hadn't yet become "Fat Winslet," though she clearly looked a lot older.

But we cannot criticize someone who is willing to sacrifice for art; those scenes without clothes and full of passion were all performed by her personally, and before becoming "Fat Winslet," her figure at the time was still quite good.

Gu Changwei, that old boy, was nominated for Best Cinematography again; he is now somewhat "numb" to the Oscars—well, that was his original quote to the domestic media.

There is no help for it; who told him to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography time and time again, and he even won this award before.

He said he was "numb," but everyone knows he just wants to show off.

But even if you know this old boy deserves a scolding, you can't say anything; this is the fourth time Gu Changwei has been nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography, so no matter who is unconvinced, they have to hold it in.

He arrived earlier than Cao Yang and brought his wife, Jiang Wenli, with him.

The Oscar awards ceremony allows bringing family members.

To reduce unnecessary trouble, Cao Yang rarely brings his girlfriend under normal circumstances.

Sometimes having too many really does cause a lot of trouble, and it’s not appropriate to bring anyone.

Of course, there are some special situations where bringing someone won't cause trouble; for example, this time, he walked the red carpet openly with Fan Bingbing, and surely no one would say anything.

After all, Fan Bingbing is considered the female lead of *Inception*, so even if she didn't get an Oscar nomination, there is no problem with her coming to attend the Oscars.

Fan Bingbing doesn't act as high-profile as she used to, and she won't just buy press releases to "crush" others at every turn.

Her status and mindset are different, her backing is different, and her behavior will certainly change accordingly.

Fan Bingbing wore a white cinched-waist evening gown; the strapless design used pearl embroidery to outline the patterns of classical vines, without deliberately showing cleavage or binding her chest, and the waist was adorned with tiny diamonds, as if a galaxy had fallen onto her waist.

The skirt was stacked with three layers of thin tulle to create a fluffy, cloud-like sensation, and the train extended like a snowfield; every step was like stepping on silent, crushed silver.

This made Fan Bingbing look exceptionally bright and grand.

Fortunately, the temperature in Los Angeles in February is quite good, with daytime temperatures around ten to twenty degrees, otherwise these female guests wearing dresses would have had a hard time.

After walking the red carpet and entering the first floor of the theater auditorium, two aisles divided the guest seating into three distinct rows.

Interestingly, Cao Yang and the *Inception* crew sat in the middle row.

The row on the left was occupied by Martin Scorsese and his *The Departed* crew.

The row on the right was occupied by Clint Eastwood’s *Letters from Iwo Jima* crew.

Furthermore, all three film crews were seated in the first to third rows, and the cameras would sweep over them at any moment, causing the people from the three crews to appear on the big screen.

The Oscars have also learned how to stir up some excitement.

The host for this year's Oscars, Ellen DeGeneres, took the stage, and the 79th Academy Awards ceremony officially began.

(End of this chapter)