Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 282 was worth it, so worth it!
"Memoirs of a Geisha" was nominated six times and won three times, which isn't exactly a surprise.

There are too many reasons why this film deserves to win awards.

The producer is Spielberg, whose connections in Hollywood are well-known.

As long as he doesn't run his own company, and as long as his films aren't produced by DreamWorks, he remains one of the most sought-after directors by the seven major Hollywood studios, at least for now.

In December of last year, 2005, his DreamWorks was sold to Viacom, the parent company of Paramount Pictures. So now, the "single" Spielberg is no longer facing an attack from the Big Seven studios, but rather friendship.

Another reason for the award is quite simple: "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a film invested in by Columbia Pictures, and Columbia Pictures is putting in a lot of effort at the Oscars.

It's worth noting that Sid Garnier, who only took office as president of the Academy Awards last year, still has close ties with Columbia, even though he left the company.

Although "Juno" was nominated for major awards such as Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress, Cao Yang knew that it was impossible for the film to win Best Director and Best Actress.

The reason is simple: apart from the three major European film festivals, very few film festivals in the world will give their most important awards to newcomers—the director and lead actress of "Juno" are both newcomers.

The most likely awards for "Juno" are Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing.

As for Best Picture, Cao Yang was unsure.

Similar to the situation with "Brokeback Mountain," it's unlikely that the Oscars will allow a Chinese person to win Best Director or Best Picture again this year.

However, Juno has an advantage over Brokeback Mountain in that it has more than one producer.

Jason Simmons, president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, is also a producer, and when the company was nominated for an Oscar, it was listed ahead of Cao Yang.

In addition, Juno has been in production for half a year and has already cost nearly 20 million US dollars. Its goal is certainly not just to win Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing.

Next, Charlize Theron took the stage as the presenter to award Best Editing, one of the five nominations for "Juno," and the first award to be presented.

Charlize Theron was originally supposed to present Best Documentary, and Zhang Ziyi was supposed to present Best Editing, but to avoid any appearance of impropriety, they switched places, and Bingbing and Zhang Ziyi presented Best Documentary.

"A good movie not only needs a good director, a brilliant script, and outstanding actors, but also excellent editing."

The nominated films are: *Cinderella Man*, *The Constant Gardener*, *Crash*, *Juno*, and *Munich*.

As Charlize Theron spoke, five films appeared one after another on the big screen behind her.

"The winner is..."

Charlize Theron opened the envelope, then smiled and said into the microphone, "Juno, by Kathy Haggis and Cao Yang."

Cao Yang remained calm, and the image of him smiling and clapping appeared on the large screen on stage.

This award was expected.

After Cao Yang called Oscar president Sid Garnier, who said that Zhang Ziyi was not allowed to present the award to avoid any appearance of impropriety, he knew that the award was practically his.

Cao Yang took the stage with Kathy Haggis, another editor for "Juno".

Charlize Theron hugged Cao Yang and said with a smile, "Congratulations! I didn't expect you to win such a big award for editing. It's really unexpected."

"Thank you, Sally."

After Cao Yang finished speaking, he patted Charlize Theron on the back, indicating that he could let go, because holding her any longer would take too long.

Besides, there's Casey Haggis waiting for her.

Charlize Theron smiled, released Cao Yang, but before leaving, she still said softly, "I waited for you for seven days."

Cao Yang's smile faltered for a moment.

Don't do that, Sally, I'm scared.

Kathy Haggis clearly didn't receive the same treatment as Cao Yang; Charlize Theron simply shook his hand and congratulated him.

When giving his acceptance speech, Cao Yang remained calm. Nowadays, such "small" awards are of little use to him and do not bring him any special status enhancement.

His acceptance speech was also very brief.

"I was very surprised to receive this award as an editor. I am grateful to the academy and my alma mater, Beijing Film Academy, for nurturing me into a well-rounded talent."

So, to all you excellent directors—I'm talking about Steven (Spielberg), Clint (Eastwood), and director Lee An—when you need an editor, please remember, I'm an excellent editor too.

Although Cao Yang's words were brief, they still drew rounds of applause and laughter from the guests and audience present.

Casey Haggis is different.

He was just an unknown, ordinary editor who had spent most of his life in Hollywood without achieving anything remarkable. Otherwise, he wouldn't have become the editor of "Juno," a film with a budget of only a few million dollars.

When we first approached him about making "Juno," we made it clear to him that the film was primarily directed by Cao Yang, and the editing would also be mainly based on Cao Yang's opinions...

In short, it means the same thing: you can have opinions, but you need to keep them to yourself, otherwise you're fired.

Kathy Haggis is quite self-aware. When people hired him as editor, they weren't looking for his experience or his mediocrity; they simply needed a reliable and obedient editor, nothing more. Kathy Haggis would never have imagined that this film would win him an Oscar for Best Editing!

Kathy Haggis was so excited that her words were incoherent.

To be honest, this Oscar for Best Editing was practically a freebie. All he did was obey orders and do his job; he didn't contribute anything else.

It's like a dream!
Therefore, Casey Haggis thanked Cao Yang a total of seven times in her acceptance speech.

Next, the awards for Best Actor and Best Actress were presented. Cao Yang was right; Reese Witherspoon won Best Actress, while Emma Stone, the lead actress in "Juno," did not receive the award.

It's almost impossible for a newcomer to win an Oscar for Best Actress.

Then, Dustin Hoffman took the stage as the presenter to award the Best Adapted Screenplay.

"Brokeback Mountain" also received a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, once again pitting itself against Cao Yang.

Dustin Hoffman is considered a Hollywood acting legend, having won the Academy Award for Best Actor twice, as well as the Berlin Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement and the Venice Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

"The screenplay is the foundation of a film, and adapting a screenplay further showcases a screenwriter's skill and creativity. The winner of the 78th Best Adapted Screenplay award is..."

Dustin Hoffman opened the envelope and said into the microphone, "Brokeback Mountain, Larry McMurtry, Diana O'Shanna."

Cao Yang was taken aback, but instead of feeling disappointed, he couldn't help but feel a little expectant.

Fox Searchlight has spent nearly $20 million on this project.

As a subsidiary of 20th Century Fox, one of the seven major Hollywood studios, and a company specializing in operating independent and art-house films, how could they dare to invest so much money if they weren't confident?

Actually, if you think about it carefully, it's quite normal that Cao Yang didn't win this award.

As one of the most influential awards in the world, the Oscars certainly wouldn't follow the Golden Globes' example of giving Cao Yang the Best Screenplay award for three consecutive years just to create hype.

Yes, if Cao Yang wins Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars this year, it would be the third consecutive year that he has won Best Screenplay.

"The Dirty Milk" won the 76th Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

District 9 won the 77th Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Whether it's the best original screenplay or the best adapted screenplay, it's actually the best screenplay.

If "Juno" also wins the 78th Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, Cao Yang will have won Best Screenplay for the third consecutive year.

Therefore, it's impossible for the Oscars to give Cao Yang this award just for the sake of hype, allowing Cao Yang's name to be "easily" written into the history of the Oscars.

Next up was the Best Director award, which was nominated for Jason Reitman, director of "Juno," and Li An was also nominated.

The presenter for Best Director was Tom Hanks. When he announced that the winner was Paul Haggis, the director of "Crash," Cao Yang glanced at Li An and saw him give his signature wry smile.

Historically, Li An won this award for "Brokeback Mountain".

However, since Cao Yang won Best Picture the year before last and Best Director last year, the Oscars certainly won't give the most important Best Director award back to a Chinese person again.

This year, "Crash" won Best Director. Will this film be able to win Best Picture as it has done in history?

The final award was for Best Picture, presented by Jack Nicholson.

This is another acting master.

He has won the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor five times, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor.

After a brief speech, Jack Nicholson said:

The films nominated for Best Picture at the 78th Academy Awards are: Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich, Juno, and Crash.

He first opened the envelope, then said directly, "The winner is 'Juno'."

Just as I predicted, the $20 million spent on Fox Searchlight couldn't have been wasted.

Fatty Bing, who was next to Cao Yang, was stunned for a moment, then hugged Cao Yang tightly and said excitedly, "Did I hear that right? You're the producer of 'Juno,' right?"

"Don't get excited, just one of them, just one of them."

"You're amazing!"

Oh, you don't know that.

It's not that I'm amazing, it's that money is amazing, it's that the Big Seven Hollywood studios are amazing, it's that Fox Searchlight's strategy is amazing, it's that Jason Simmons, this "traitor," betrayed the Republican Party and that's what makes him amazing!
Jason Simmons, president of Fox Searchlight Pictures, was overjoyed. With Juno winning the Oscar for Best Picture and Cao Yang's influence, the film's box office would be at least $100 million!
That 20 million was totally worth it!

Hiring Cao Yang was totally worth it!

I, Jason Simmons, president of Fox Searchlight, am amazing!
(End of this chapter)