Chapter 404

Before the Oscar awards ceremony officially begins, the red carpet and interview time left for all stars is actually quite long.

From 3 PM Los Angeles time until 5 PM, two hours are red carpet time.

At 5 o'clock, the red carpet time ends; except for some big-name stars or stars with hot awards who are still accepting interviews from different media, most guests and their families have already entered the awards hall.

From 5 o'clock to 5:30, this half-hour is considered adjustment or makeup time; at 5:30, the awards ceremony will officially begin.

Some stars will also take advantage of this half-hour gap to grab something to eat, because the Oscar awards ceremony is too long, and three and a half hours is still very difficult to endure.

Of course, those who eat at this time are almost all male stars; female stars would rather starve than eat at this time.

It is too troublesome for them to go to the bathroom; one is that the clothes are difficult to put on and take off, and two is that after going to the bathroom, they still have to touch up their makeup; where is there so much time.

For these female stars, every second of the camera occasionally sweeping over during the Oscar awards ceremony is extremely precious and can appear in front of global audiences; no one will miss it because of going to the bathroom.

So, this led to many female stars not only not eating or drinking from the day before, but also wearing diapers on the day of the awards ceremony to deal with special situations.

The Oscars are also very understanding of human feelings.

Cao Yang promised Academy chairman Sid Ganis that he would present Best Director together with last year's Best Director winner Martin Scorsese.

Then, the *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* crew sat next to the *The Fault in Our Stars* crew, which saved Cao Yang from being embarrassed about which crew to sit with.

After all, if *The Fault in Our Stars* won Best Picture or Best Adapted Screenplay, it wouldn't be appropriate for Cao Yang to stand up from the *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* side to receive the award.

However, it is estimated that Disney CEO Robert Iger would be happy to see this situation, and would probably even let the subsidiary ABC give a few more "unintentional" snapshots.

He is now using all means to get *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* to 1 billion USD.

9:30 AM Beijing time, 5:30 PM Los Angeles time, the main lights of the Kodak Theatre went out, and in the applause of the guests, some ambient lights were gradually lit, and the 80th Academy Awards ceremony officially began.

Host Jon Stewart was also straightforward, coming up and starting to tease the writers' strike.

"I really can't believe you are all here."

The guests in the theater knew what he was talking about, so they gave kind applause.

Jon Stewart continued: "The past three and a half months have been difficult; the bitter writers' strike tore Hollywood apart; I am glad that this struggle is over."

Saying this, he flew the note in his hand out, shrugged his shoulders, and continued: "But it is a pity that members of the Writers Guild refused to write scripts for the Golden Globes and Oscars during the strike.

So, before the Oscars opened, the chairman personally begged me to host this Oscar without a written script, because as everyone knows, I am also a member of the Writers Guild, and I am also particularly literary and witty.

Oh, shit, where is my prompt note? What should I do next?"

Jon Stewart pretended to be panicked and walked back and forth, causing the guests in the audience to laugh loudly.

Afterward, Jon Stewart seemed to give up and said: "Forget it, I don't know what to do next, so let's introduce the films."

After Jon Stewart rambled for a while, Jennifer Garner, the awards presenter for the first award tonight, took the stage to present the first award, Best Costume Design.

The order of the Oscar awards often changes; specifically, except for Best Picture being presented last, the order of other awards will change, and sometimes Best Director is not necessarily presented second to last.

However, generally speaking, the most important Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director, plus the Best Picture presented last, are the major awards presented last.

Penny Rose, sitting to Cao Yang's left rear, was obviously nervous; she is the costume designer for *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* and was nominated for Best Costume Design.

There are five films nominated for Best Costume Design; Jennifer Garner just introduced the importance of costumes in films and said to the microphone:

"The winner of the 80th Oscar for Best Costume Design is..."

She opened the envelope, took a look, and said softly: "*Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl*, Penny Rose, congratulations."

Penny Rose couldn't believe it, covered the lower half of her face with her hands, looked left and right, and it wasn't until the applause rang out that she stood up with a face full of excitement.

Cao Yang turned around, looked at Penny Rose, and clapped gently.

He didn't expect that *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* actually got off to a good start and won the first award.

But thinking about it, it's reasonable.

When Disney operated the awards, Robert Iger, as Disney CEO, made the decision to reboot *The New Pirates of the Caribbean*; regarding his authority and even his position, within his authority, he definitely used quite a few favors.

He had served as CEO of ABC, a subsidiary of Disney, and ABC is the broadcaster of the Oscars; he still has influence over some important members.

After Penny Rose was excited, she didn't rush to the stage to receive the award, but leaned over to hug Cao Yang who was still sitting, and said with a face full of smiles: "Thank you, thank you for giving me this opportunity."

For most people, the gold content of technical awards is definitely not comparable to major awards like Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Picture.

Even many people don't care too much about the attribution of technical awards, feeling that these awards seem to be dispensable.

But for behind-the-scenes staff, if they can win an Oscar technical award, it is a "flight," and they will jump to become top talents in the industry.

It also indicates that they will have the qualification to pick films in the future, will cooperate with more great directors and big stars, and most importantly, their salary will also "fly."

Penny Rose's acceptance speech thanked Cao Yang first.

This year's Oscars didn't specifically present some major awards early to attract attention; perhaps they felt that the Oscars were already "invincible" and didn't need this gimmick?

First Best Costume Design, then Best Animated Feature, Best Makeup, Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction; these first five awards are not major awards recognized by ordinary audiences.

Even if Best Visual Effects and Best Art Direction are considered important awards, if they rely on these awards that are not "universal" to keep the audience, only the Oscars have this confidence.

If it were the European Big Three film festivals, it definitely wouldn't work.

In recent years, the European Big Three have placed a traditional major award in the front in the order of awards to keep the audience.

It is worth mentioning that although *The New Pirates of the Caribbean* didn't win Best Makeup, losing to *La Vie en Rose*, it won Best Visual Effects again.

Among the three nominated awards presented so far, it is three nominations and two wins; it looks like a good omen.

The next award presented was finally a major award, Best Supporting Actor, won by Javier Bardem for *No Country for Old Men*.

Among the other four candidates he defeated, one was Casey Affleck who played Norrington in *The New Pirates of the Caribbean*.

However, Casey Affleck was not nominated for *The New Pirates of the Caribbean*; he was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford*.

This film *The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford* was produced by Warner Bros., and it was established as early as the beginning of 2005, started filming in August 2005, and finished filming in December.

However, the release of this film was pushed back again and again; according to what Warner Bros. said when speaking to the outside world, the reason why it was dragged for two years before being released was because the company had high hopes for the film from the beginning of its preparation.

After the first cut of the film, it was re-edited again and again according to the audience's requirements, striving for the most perfect version to be released, so it dragged on for nearly two years...