Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 406, are you done congratulating me?

In this day and age, why do Chinese people feel that the Oscars are prestigious? Even most ordinary viewers may not know much about the three major European film festivals, but they must know about the Oscars.

First, Hollywood movies have been conquering the world, dominating the film markets of almost all major countries and leaving local films utterly defeated.

If China hadn't taken a series of timely measures, such as restricting imports, allowing Hollywood blockbusters to flood the market and compete with each other, and establishing a domestic film protection month, it would have been completely overtaken like Europe, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, and would have been left with only genre films.

Secondly, domestic media outlets and directors shout "Award-winning, Oscar-winning!" every year, but they almost always fail, which inadvertently raises the prestige of the Oscars.

Looking back at China's journey to the Oscars over the past two decades since the reform and opening up, each year the mainland, Taiwan, and Hong Kong each send one film to compete for the Oscars.

To date, only Zhang Yimou's "Ju Dou," "Raise the Red Lantern," and "Hero," and Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" have received Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film from mainland China.

Taiwanese actor Li An also had three films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film: The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ultimately won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

This is the only time that Chinese films have successfully competed for the Oscars.

As for Hong Kong films, they submit them every year, but unfortunately, no film has ever received a nomination.

In other words, in the past twenty years, four films from mainland China have received nominations, three films from Taiwan have received nominations, and Hong Kong films have received none.

Therefore, at least on the surface, the Oscars seem much more difficult than the three major European film festivals.

This year's Oscars saw each of the three regions—Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong—submit a film for consideration.

Taiwan presented "Etude," while Hong Kong presented "Exiled," directed by Du Qifeng.

On the mainland side, the final two films shortlisted were "The Knot" and "Pieta". In the end, the Film Bureau chose "Pieta", which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, from the two films.

Cao Yang's films are never submitted for nomination for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

For the first two years, the Film Bureau would ask him if he wanted to run for the Oscars, but after Cao Yang won the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, they stopped asking.

Lao Tian is different from Cao Yang.

Like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, he highly values ​​the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

In fact, the process of generating the Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film is quite "grassroots." In layman's terms, it's highly random, not very professional, and fair... well, if you only look at the process, it appears fair on the surface.

After countries or regions submit their applications for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the Academy will recruit between 320 and 400 foreign language-speaking volunteers in Los Angeles.

These people will then be divided into several groups, and the submitted films will be assigned to these groups.

After watching the films, volunteers will rate them, with a maximum of 10 points and a minimum of 7 points. The scores will then be tallied, and the top six films will be added to a shortlist.

The shortlist is divided into two parts: one part consists of the six films that received the highest scores from volunteers, and the other part consists of three more films selected by members of the Academy's Foreign Language Film Executive Committee to fill any gaps.

This is the shortlist of 6+3.

This was not yet the final list of 5 nominees.

Finally, the Academy will organize a nomination committee, whose members are all well-known filmmakers, to select the final five films to become the Oscar nominees for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film go through these three stages, which seems fair, but those in the know understand that there is still a lot of room for manipulation.

Leaving aside the quality of the six films selected by volunteers, since these people are certainly acting entirely on personal preferences and there aren't many true professionals, let's just talk about the three films that the academy supposedly used to fill in the gaps.

These three films could be of very high quality, films that rely entirely on the director's reputation, or films that have been manipulated... In short, they are highly manipulable.

Cao Yang did not lobby for Lao Tian to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Actually, it's not really necessary.

Whether it's volunteers or members of the academy's foreign language film executive committee, they may not necessarily know who Lao Tian is, but the information about the Venice Golden Lion Award, plus the producer and screenwriter's name being listed as "Cao Yang," is quite telling.

These two points alone are enough to guarantee that "Pieta" will be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

The result was as Cao Yang had predicted.

Taiwanese film "Island Etude" and Hong Kong film "Exiled" were both left out of the nomination list, while Lao Tian's "Pieta" successfully made it into the final five nominees for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

With this, in addition to Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, another director from mainland China has been added to the list of directors nominated for Oscars.

Now that Pietà has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Lao Tian will definitely come to Los Angeles to attend the Oscars.

Cao Yang drove to the airport to pick up Lao Tian, ​​who was accompanied by Fu Dalong, Hui Yinghong, and Ning Hao.

Furthermore, Cheng Jianye also came with Lao Tian.

Ning Hao is the assistant director of "Pieta". He came along for another reason: Cao Yang wanted Ning Hao to start preparing for the filming of "Joker" after the Oscars.

As for Cheng Jianye, he was the executive producer that Cao Yang sent to "The Fault in Our Stars". Among the nominations for "The Fault in Our Stars" was a Best Picture nomination, and Cao Yang wanted him to make an appearance.

Although as the executive producer, even if "The Fault in Our Stars" won Best Picture, he was unable to go on stage to accept the award if the producer was present.

But when he gave an interview afterward, the caption read "Executive Producer of Oscar Best Picture," which still sounded quite prestigious.

It's worth mentioning that "Juno," which Cheng Jianye was assigned by Cao Yang to be the executive producer of, also won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

If "The Fault in Our Stars" wins again this time, he will be the executive producer of two Oscar-winning films.

This is already a remarkable achievement.

Cao Yang treated them to a meal and then took them to the hotel he had booked. After such a long flight, everyone must have been exhausted.

The next day, the crew of "Pirates of the Caribbean" also arrived in Los Angeles.

As the actor nominated for Best Actor in the film, Depp naturally treated everyone to a big meal.

This time, Depp and his agency did not pursue an Oscar win.

Because it's obvious that no matter how well Depp acts or how distinctive the character is, it's practically impossible for a commercial film with a box office of a billion dollars to win an individual award.

But as a two-time Oscar winner and now nominated for another Oscar, treating everyone to a meal is a must.

After the meal, those who had a house in Los Angeles went home, while those who didn't went to their booked hotel.

Only Eva Green, who had neither a house nor a hotel reservation in Los Angeles, got into Cao Yang's car.

Many people in the film crew saw it.

But no one was curious, no one even glanced at it, as if it were a perfectly natural thing.

Incidentally, Eva Green isn't without options in Los Angeles. Although her boyfriend didn't buy a house there, he rented an apartment not far from where Cao Yang lives in Arcadia.

"Shall I take you back?"

After Eva Green fastened her seatbelt, Cao Yang asked her with a smile.

Eva Green paused for a moment, then immediately unbuckled her seatbelt and crouched down to crawl towards Cao Yang's driver's seat.

He also added, "The parking lot is nice too, I haven't tried it yet."

Cao Yang was stunned for a moment; this was not what he had expected.

This was just a casual question; what did Eva Green interpret it as?

By the time he realized what was happening, Eva Green had already crawled over, and her hands were busy untying Cao Yang.

I rely on!

"and many more."

Cao Yang quickly asked, "What are you doing?"

Eva Green looked up, puzzled, and asked, "Didn't you say you didn't want me to come to your place? And you didn't object to me getting in your car, so why not here?"

It does not make sense.

Damn, what's wrong with your thought process?

So when I said I'd take you home, you took it as a warning not to come to my place? Cao Yang patted her bottom, too lazy to explain, and simply said, "Get up and fasten your seatbelt. I was just joking."

"You really don't want to stay here?"

Eva Green sat back down, but instead of fastening her seatbelt, she blinked her big eyes, licked her lips, and said, "Or you can drive your car, and I'll crawl under the driver's seat..."

Cao Yang hesitated for only a moment before rejecting Eva Green's proposal.

Damn it, although Eva Green's offer was very tempting, my life was more important. In TV shows, movies, and in real life, many fatal car accidents happen this way.

He doesn't want to be in the headlines.

After starting the car, Cao Yang thought for a moment and then asked, "Isn't your boyfriend in Los Angeles?"

Eva Green ran her hand through her hair, turned to look at Cao Yang, and said with a smile, "He went back to New Zealand."

"What a pity, I wish Director Cao Yang was my boyfriend."

Eva Green thought with great regret.

Compared to Cao Yang, she felt that her New Zealand boyfriend was utterly worthless.

After "Pirates of the Caribbean" became a box office hit and is now the third highest-grossing film of all time, Eva Green couldn't help but worry.

During the filming of "Pirates of the Caribbean," she heard Cao Yang talk to Depp more than once that if the movie was successful, there would probably be about three sequels planned.

At the time, Eva Green didn't pay much attention.

But it's different now.

It's clear that "Pirates of the Caribbean" will become a signature film for Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Eva Green.

Johnny Depp is a bit better off; he has starred in too many classic films, such as "The Dirty Milk," "District 9," and "Inception," each of which is a masterpiece.

But Eva Green is different.

If we had to name a representative work from her debut to the present, only "Casino Royale" would be a close call. Similar to other 007 movies, she played a super pretty face in it, with no memorable moments.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" is undoubtedly Eva Green's most important representative work. In this film, she is not just a pretty face, but a non-traditional aristocratic girl who is independent, witty, and courageous.

This movie could get her promoted to a leading role.

Before accepting the role in "Pirates of the Caribbean," she had quoted a salary of $300 million.

The salary for filming "Pirates of the Caribbean" was $200 million, but it was reduced because the film's director was Cao Yang.

But what happened after "Pirates of the Caribbean" was released?
In the first week of the film's release, her agency raised her asking price to $500 million.

When "Pirates of the Caribbean" grossed over $8 million worldwide, her agency raised her asking price by $100 million, bringing it to $600 million.

In other words, her salary doubled compared to when she didn't star in "Pirates of the Caribbean".

Her agent said that if "Pirates of the Caribbean" grosses over 800 billion and she is still the female lead in the sequel, the agency is willing to ask for her salary to be between 1000 million and 10 million.

What does it mean for a female star to earn $800 million to $1000 million per film in Hollywood?

This is almost the price quoted by a top-tier female celebrity.

In Hollywood as a whole, apart from Angelina Jolie and Julia Roberts whose salaries are drastically higher, even actresses like Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, who have won Oscars, only asked for $1500 million at their peak.

Such actresses are extremely rare in Hollywood.

Eva Green's biggest worry is that the sequel to "Pirates of the Caribbean" will have a different actress or that her scenes will be cut altogether.

She herself was well aware that she was not an indispensable character in this film.

That's why she interpreted Cao Yang's casual remark as something else—that she would do anything, accept anything, and do it willingly, as long as it was Cao Yang's idea.

At 7:00 AM Beijing time on February 25th, which is 3:00 PM Pacific Time in Los Angeles, the red carpet ceremony for the 80th Academy Awards officially began.

However, the weather is a bit bad today, with a light drizzle.

This is even less friendly to the female stars who are going to walk the red carpet today. Not only will the temperature drop significantly due to the rain, but they are also afraid of having their carefully applied makeup, which they have spent hours working on, wet by the rain.

The cold weather is bearable, but if your makeup gets ruined, that's a big problem.

Fortunately, the Oscars organizers took this into account and erected white tents along the entire red carpet to provide shelter from the rain, relieving the actresses of any worries.

Charlize Theron once told Cao Yang that, in addition to competing for Oscar awards, the Oscar red carpet is also a battleground for female stars.

It remains a crucial battleground.

Hollywood actresses can starve themselves for a month to fit into gowns that accentuate their figures, eating only a tiny amount of carbohydrates each day to maintain a minimal metabolic rate.

In addition, minimally invasive cosmetic surgery can also help.

For example, when injecting medication under the armpit, it's to prevent sweat from seeping out.

For example, apply concealer to areas with uneven skin tone, or even have liposuction or a facelift beforehand.

Especially for older female celebrities, these are all procedures they must go through before walking the red carpet.

Cao Yang once asked Theron curiously, "How big is this 'slightly larger'?"

Theron gave Cao Yang a disgruntled look, muttered something under her breath, but still said, "Probably around thirty years old."

Well, this is related to the physical constitution of Europeans and Americans.

They mature early, and naturally, they "decline" early as well.

Without any cosmetic surgery, most Europeans and Americans will suddenly look much older than they are over thirty.

However, aside from carefully controlling her portion sizes when eating, Eva Green didn't take any other precautions in the time leading up to walking the red carpet.

I don't know why, but even though they are both of European descent, French women seem to age more gracefully.
Take Eva Green, for example. She's already 28 years old, which is a very mature age for other Europeans and Americans, but Eva Green doesn't look that "old".

At this year's Oscars, although only one Chinese-language film, "Pieta," received a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film, there were quite a few Chinese people participating in the Oscars.

Lao Tian, ​​Fu Dalong, Kara Hui, and Ning Hao are the cast and crew of "Saintly Tragedy".

Others include Cheng Jianye and Duan Yihong.

In addition, there are several behind-the-scenes technicians, all of whom Cao Yang brought to the "New Pirates of the Caribbean" crew, and others to the "The Fault in Our Stars" crew.

Of the seven nominations for "Pirates of the Caribbean," six were in the technical category, so even those who weren't in charge appeared at the Oscars.

Undeniably, Hollywood has advanced experience in commercial films, especially in big-budget commercial productions that utilize a large number of special effects, which is currently leading the world.

Cao Yang assigned these people to the team, not expecting them to surpass him, but simply to learn the good experiences and bring them back, which would be considered as having achieved Cao Yang's goal.

For this red carpet appearance, Cao Yang finally agreed to Disney CEO Robert Iger's request. Instead of walking the red carpet with "The Fault in Our Stars," which had a better chance of winning awards, he walked the red carpet on behalf of "Pirates of the Caribbean."

Media reporters are not allowed on the red carpet in every country, but China is one of the countries that is allowed to set up cameras on the red carpet.

Of course, it wasn't other media outlets that were allowed to participate, but rather a group sent by the central government.

When Lao Tian and his team walk the red carpet, they will inevitably be interviewed by CCTV.

As for Cao Yang, an interview is definitely in order.

"Hello Director Cao, first of all, congratulations on achieving the first-ever grand slam of Best Director awards at the three major European film festivals. Secondly, congratulations on receiving nominations for Best Film and Best Adapted Screenplay as the producer and screenwriter of 'The Fault in Our Stars'."

Also, congratulations on your directorial debut, *Pirates of the Caribbean*, which received seven award nominations…

At this point, the CCTV reporter paused for a moment, perhaps because there were too many things to congratulate Cao Yang on, and they were wondering if they had missed anything.

The reporter then added, "Also, congratulations to Director Cao on the release of 'New Pirates of the Caribbean,' which has grossed over $9.8 million worldwide, becoming the third highest-grossing film in history."

"Phew," the CCTV reporter breathed a sigh of relief, it seemed that all the congratulations had been given, right?
(End of this chapter)