Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 273 Best Foreign Language Films
Inception is a mega-production. To reduce the chances of failure, Columbia Pictures racked its brains, and the configuration of each department was top-notch.

The cinematographer is Gu Changwei, who is a regular member of Cao Yang's team and has won an Oscar for Best Cinematography with Cao Yang.

The visual effects supervisor was Ben Snow. You may not be familiar with him, but you should be familiar with his work as a visual effects artist.

His recent works include Pearl Harbor, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, and Van Helsing. He has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and is considered a very famous figure in Hollywood.

The art director was Cheryl Karasik, who is also a very talented person.

In 96, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for "A Little Princess".

In 97, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Production Design for "The Birdcage".

In 98, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Production Design for "Men in Black".

In 05, he received another Oscar nomination for Best Production Design for "The Unfortunate Adventures of Raymond Snicket".

Unfortunately, he failed to win the Oscar for Best Production Design despite being nominated four times.

The score was composed by Hans Zimmer, a top Hollywood composer who has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score seven times and has won the award once.

The editing was done by Yang Qian from Qingying Film Studio. He is also Cao Yang's old partner. Cao Yang used him mainly because he was very comfortable with him.

To put it simply, he did exactly what Cao Yang told him to do, and he cut the bark exactly as Cao Yang instructed.

Of course, this doesn't mean Yang Qian is incompetent. He can quickly understand Cao Yang's ideas and cut them to Cao Yang's liking, which is his greatest skill.

Cao Yang held several meetings with these people, and their opinions were indispensable for the post-production process.

If it's a low-budget art film with few scenes and simple content, Cao Yang can handle it all by himself. But for a film like "Inception," it requires full cooperation from all departments.

There are so many things involved in post-production that everyone has to work together to avoid any oversights.

Comparatively speaking, although Cao Yang had a lot to worry about in the post-production of big-budget films like "Inception," it was actually more relaxed compared to his previous art films.

In the past, he had to do many things personally in his art films, but now he only needs to give orders and things will be carried out very well. His main role is to make decisions and supervise.

While working on the post-production of "Inception," Cao Yang appeared on several programs and gave several interviews, arranged by Fox Searchlight.

Furthermore, Cao Yang has become the cover figure of the latest issue of People magazine, which is considered one of the mainstream American magazines.

It's mainly for promoting the movie.

And so, amidst Cao Yang's busy schedule, it was already mid-January.

He's going to make a trip to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles these next few days because the 63rd Golden Globe Awards are about to be held there.

Perhaps it's for some unspoken collaboration, but he's going to be a presenter at the Golden Globe Awards, awarding the Best Director prize, and they'll be rehearsing for the next few days.

Yes, whether it's the Oscars, the Golden Globes, or other major award ceremonies in other countries, rehearsals are necessary, and often more than once.

Rehearsals are for optimizing processes and coordinating collaboration. During rehearsals, technical equipment such as lighting, sound, and large screen playback can be tested to ensure that the audiovisual effects during the official event are consistent with expectations.

The host, award presenters, and other staff need to be familiar with their positions and routes, as well as the award speeches, to avoid chaos or interruptions on site. Rehearsals can test the time control and smoothness of each segment.

The more prestigious the award ceremony, the more attention it pays to these things. If a mistake is made, it will be truly embarrassing on the international stage and will also affect the outside world's perception.

After all, if you can cause chaos even during the awards ceremony, it's hard not to doubt the authority of the awards and the organizing committee's ability to coordinate.

Before participating in the Golden Globe Awards, "Juno" had already won a number of awards, including the Satellite Awards, the Detroit Film Critics Circle Awards, the Critics' Choice Awards, the St. Louis Film Critics Circle Awards, and many others.

There weren't many nominations for this year's Golden Globes, only three: Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy, and Best Screenplay, but they are all considered major awards.

After the rehearsal today, Cao Yang didn't go back to work. Instead, he chatted with Leonardo DiCaprio, who was also an award presenter, and they had a cup of coffee together. When it was almost time, he drove to Los Angeles International Airport.

Leonardo DiCaprio is indeed impressive. He just broke up with Gisele Bündchen not long ago, and now, the media says that before breaking up with his fiancée Gisele Bündchen, he was already hooking up with Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli.

The two are currently experiencing the peak of their attraction, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they're inseparable. So, even during rehearsals, Bar Refaeli accompanied Leonardo DiCaprio.

Yes, Leonardo DiCaprio is still Leonardo DiCaprio. Bar Refaeli just turned twenty this year, which is Leonardo's favorite age.

Leonardo DiCaprio's favorite type of supermodel is between 18 and 25 years old.

At Los Angeles International Airport, Cao Yang picked up Chen Kaige and Hong Saozi.

"The Promise" represents mainland China in the competition for this year's Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" from Hong Kong is also competing for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Golden Globe Awards. Cao Yang really didn't know when Stephen Chow would come to the US; he wasn't familiar with Stephen Chow and they even had some kind of conflict.

When "District 9" was released, Stephen Chow's "Kung Fu Hustle" was forced to change its release date. It was originally intended to be released during the Lunar New Year holiday, but it was postponed for almost half a year.

However, since "Kung Fu Hustle" has received investment from Columbia Pictures Asia, Columbia Pictures here will probably host him.

There are quite a few Chinese-language filmmakers nominated for the Golden Globe Awards this year.

Besides the two of them, there's Li An's "Brokeback Mountain," Zhang Ziyi's "Memoirs of a Geisha," and Cao Yang's "Juno," which he produced, supervised, and wrote.

In fact, if we look at Cao Yang's titles and other credits in "Juno" from a Hollywood perspective, this film is entirely Cao Yang's film, and the director is just a member of the crew.

Hollywood operates on a producer-centric system, as evidenced by this film—even during filming, the director is under the supervision of Cheng Jianye, appointed by Cao Yang, and cannot deviate from the script in the slightest, nor does he have any editing rights.

In addition, the publicity strategy devised by Fox Searchlight has consistently focused on promoting Cao Yang's film, while the director's presence is extremely minimal.

When they met Mr. and Mrs. Chen at the airport, Mr. Chen shook hands with Cao Yang, and Mrs. Hong gave Cao Yang a gentle hug as usual.

Sitting in Cao Yang's car, Old Chen looked a bit serious. He always maintained the attitude of an older brother in front of Cao Yang, while Sister Hong was very enthusiastic.

"Originally, Lao Chen didn't want to come. It's currently showing in theaters in China and the box office is pretty good. However, some people have gone too far, editing things randomly online and causing quite a stir."

I advised Lao Chen, "It just so happens that my junior brother is in Los Angeles. 'The Promise' is competing for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, so it would be good for him to come and promote the film, and also to relax..."

Sister Hong glanced at Old Chen and explained to Cao Yang with a smile.

Old Chen sighed and said to Sister Hong with some impatience, "Why are you telling Cao Yang these troublesome things? You're already abroad, so don't talk about these things."

"You... what can't you say? Cao Yang isn't an outsider. Just a while ago, you publicly called on the media to boycott plagiarism and not give those directors who steal other people's work any chance."

Sister Hong offered a soft defense.

Cao Yang heard about Lao Chen's public call to boycott plagiarism, but Lao Chen didn't mention it when he attended the premiere of "The Promise".

Logically speaking, as long as Lao Situ doesn't deny it, Lu Chuan can be considered Lao Chen's junior brother. Lao Chen's ability to publicly express his opinions means he can represent many things.

Old Chen always treated Cao Yang as his junior brother, but he always considered himself the elder brother, and there was also a subtle sense of comparison between them.

Now, although "The Promise" did well at the box office, it was heavily criticized in China, especially after a film titled "A Bloodbath Caused by a Steamed Bun" appeared online at the end of last month, which was ridiculed by the entire internet.

The proud Old Chen couldn't stand this, and he certainly didn't want Cao Yang to know, as he still wanted to maintain his elder brother's dignity.

"Cao Yang, is the chances of 'The Promise' winning Best Foreign Language Film not very optimistic?"
I spoke with some acquaintances at the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and they said it's going to be tough this year. There's a film that strongly aligns with mainstream Western viewpoints that might win the award.

Old Chen changed the subject and asked about Cao Yang's award.

As a heavyweight award presenter, Cao Yang actually knew some inside information.

The Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is really a waste of time. If it were an Oscar, it would be worth the effort to win, but with the Golden Globes, let them decide whatever they want. Very few film crews and the film companies behind them will do anything about it.

Therefore, to a certain extent, as long as there are no film companies that manipulate the award, the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film is relatively fair.

As far as Cao Yang knows, no one is working on this pointless award this year.

Therefore, the Foreign Correspondents' Club is more inclined to give the award to the Palestinian film "Paradise Now".

This film tells the story of two Palestinian youths who are friends and join a radical organization together, and are then selected as fighters to fight for "jihad".

Specifically, it describes the fate and psychological journey of two people who, after being implanted with bombs and acting as human bombs, face.

Most importantly, this is not a film that glorifies others; on the contrary, the director did not portray the two men's actions as heroic, but rather used many metaphors to reject such behavior...

Such films are very popular in Europe and America.

Under normal circumstances, it should have been able to win the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

"There is such a movie, called 'Paradise Now,' and if nothing unexpected happens, it will definitely be the best foreign language film."

Cao Yang did not hide anything.

Old Chen frowned, somewhat disappointed.

(End of this chapter)