Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 464 Controversy
In an effort to reverse the declining viewership of the Oscars in recent years, this year's Oscars have generated considerable buzz.

In 03, the Oscars' ratings plummeted to an all-time low, at least at that time, with only 3300 million viewers.

The following year, in an attempt to reverse the decline, the Oscars made an attempt to focus on promoting "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," which grossed over $11 billion worldwide and became the second highest-grossing film in the world.

ABC television network intensified its promotion, highlighting the "visual feast" characteristics of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King".

In addition, the Lord of the Rings series has a cultural influence that transcends age groups, attracting a large core audience aged 18-49, and the return of host Billy Crystal to control the show.

In 04, the Oscars saw a significant increase in viewership, with the number of viewers rising to 4350 million, a year-on-year increase of 31.8%.

However, with the popularization of the Internet in recent years, the number of people watching TV has shown a clear downward trend, which is an inevitable trend.

The Oscars' 04 ratings were only a brief period of glory; in the following years, they declined year after year, with almost no year exceeding 4000 million viewers.

Especially in 08, affected by the writers' strike at the end of 07, the ratings plummeted to... another historical low.

As it turns out, the so-called historical lows exist precisely to be overcome.

The 08 Oscars ratings successfully prevented the 03 ratings from falling to a new low of 03 million viewers, down from 3300 million in 3200.

Therefore, this year's Oscars had to take action and try to create some highly topical gimmicks to attract people's attention to the Oscars again.

Because of its immense popularity and phenomenal box office success, "Joker" became the second highest-grossing film worldwide, similar to the situation of "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," and even more popular than "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Oscar certainly wouldn't let this opportunity pass him by.

This time, they pulled off a lot of gimmicks.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Joker were both nominated for thirteen Oscars.

The awards and artistic rivalry between "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Joker".

The battle for technical awards between "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "The Dark Knight".

The Best Supporting Actor competition between "The Dark Knight" and "Joker," and a comparison of the acting skills of the two "Jokers."

There was even a competition between two "Joker" actors for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor – the "Joker" received nominations for both Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor for different films, which was quite interesting.

Besides the hype surrounding the nominations and awards, this year's Oscars also adopted a mysterious approach.

In previous years, the Oscars would announce the presenters before the awards ceremony. However, this year, the presenters will be kept secret and will not be announced to the public beforehand, in order to create anticipation and surprise.

This leads to uncertainty regarding who will present the awards.

Of course, if it's the same award ceremony format as before, everyone can roughly guess who the presenter will be.

In the past, the Oscars ceremony was mostly structured like this: the previous year's Best Actor would present the award to the current year's Best Actress, the previous year's Best Supporting Actress would present the award to the current year's Best Supporting Actor, and so on.

This year, however, this format was no longer followed, in order to maintain secrecy.

There is another reform measure.

The Academy's investigation revealed that many viewers complained about the length of the Oscars ceremony and the endless acceptance speeches by the winners.

Therefore, the academy, after careful consideration, explicitly limited the acceptance speeches of award winners to 45 seconds.

As soon as the speaker begins speaking, a large display screen starts a 45-second countdown. At 10 seconds, the numbers turn yellow, and after 45 seconds, the background turns red.

This is to limit the time allotted for the award recipients' acceptance speeches.

……

In short, the 81st Academy Awards were truly seeking change, with the aim of reversing the declining viewership.

Of course, Americans are realistic, Hollywood is realistic, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is even more realistic.

The college thinks, "What the hell have I been working so hard for?"
Therefore, after an internal meeting of the Academy, it was decided that, for the first time, movie commercials would be allowed during this year's Academy Awards ceremony (this is a fact, not a fabrication).

In the past, to prevent viewers from thinking that film companies that buy advertising would benefit from the Oscars selection process and to maintain the fairness of the Oscars, commercial breaks have been prohibited during the Oscars since the awards ceremony began to be televised in the early 50s.

This rule was broken at the 81st Academy Awards.

The official explanation for lifting the ban was: "To add more entertainment content about movies to the film festival..."

Okay, anyway, this explanation seems to be for the sake of making the Oscar content richer, for... well, for the sake of making the Oscar better.

Since even inserting movie commercials during the Oscars is allowed, the Academy wouldn't mind doing a little more.

As the ABC with exclusive broadcasting rights, you should be sensible. What is the purpose of all the measures the Academy has taken this year?
Of course, it's so that ABC can sell more broadcasting rights and advertising revenue.

So...it costs extra!

Prior to 08, the Oscars were still under the contract signed in 1998 with ABC, with an average annual broadcasting fee of between $4000 million and $4500 million.

The academy is going to raise the price to $5000 million this time (which is also true).

Cao Yang had also heard about these things, but he didn't care much about them. Instead, he wondered if he could get domestic media to report on them.

The main focus of the reports is on the things the Oscars do to boost ratings, in order to demystify the Oscars.

But think about it, it was only early 09, a time when "public intellectuals" were rampant. Even when the media reported on it, most of the discussions were about "debating" the Oscars.

In recent years, Harvey Weinstein has been a good entry point in reporting on the subject. Starting with "small" public relations can gradually let people in China know that public relations is a key factor in winning awards.

These things can't be rushed; they can only be done slowly and gradually have an impact.

In the two days leading up to the Oscars, Cao Yang read many analyses from authoritative magazines and media outlets, especially The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Entertainment Weekly.

In the past, the analyses of these three organizations have been highly reliable because their accuracy rate has been very high every year.

This year, the three major media outlets did not reach a consensus on the major awards as they have in previous years. They have unusually diverged on the major awards, especially Best Film and Best Director.

The Hollywood Reporter's prediction for this year's Oscar Best Picture is not "Joker," but "Slumdog Millionaire."

The Hollywood Reporter believes that its "inspirational underdog story," multi-narrative structure, and globally resonant themes, along with its depiction of wealth inequality and fate, perfectly align with Oscar values. Furthermore, The Hollywood Reporter recommends Danny Boyle, director of *Slumdog Millionaire*, as the nominee for Best Director.

The reason given is that the film's vibrant visual style, such as parkour scenes in Mumbai slums, and its precise multi-narrative structure are considered to have "revolutionized traditional drama films."

The Hollywood Reporter also gave reasons why Joker and Cao Yang could not win Best Picture and Best Director, the reason being simple: Joker's box office was too high!
When "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" won too many awards at the Oscars, it was criticized that it was unreasonable for a commercial film to receive so many awards. It is said that the Academy officials later said that the Oscars would no longer focus on high-grossing films in the future.

Another reason is that Joker is a comic book movie, and there has never been a precedent for a comic book movie winning Best Picture and Best Director.

This is also why The Hollywood Reporter is not optimistic about Cao Yang and Joker.

Variety, on the other hand, favors Joker for Best Picture and predicts that Cao Yang will win Best Director again.

The reason given for Joker winning Best Picture is:
The artistry of "Joker" lies in its subversive character deconstruction, extreme aesthetic expression, and deep interweaving of social metaphors. It possesses a realistic class critique and serves as a microscope for class division.

Finally, it was emphasized that when Arthur performed the "clown dance" amidst the blood, he was both a victim and a tyrant, revealing the underlying madness hidden beneath all the masks of order—this is the most dangerous projection of truth in contemporary art.

Variety cited the novel narrative structure and unconventional use of color aesthetics in "Joker" as reasons why Cao Yang was awarded Best Director.

It is also said that Cao Yang transformed comic book characters into scalpels for dissecting social tumors, making "Joker" transcend the superhero genre and become a Kafkaesque existential allegory.

Entertainment Weekly's predictions differ from theirs.

Entertainment Weekly believes that Joker deserves the Best Picture award because it is an allegorical film and the best "feedback" on contemporary society.

If Joker doesn't win Best Picture this year, it's only because all the judges live on Mars and are completely unaware of the current state of Earth.

The best director should be Danny Boyle.

His film "Slumdog Millionaire" is an anti-Hollywood narrative, a rhythmic aesthetic amidst chaos, a wild visual poetry, a narrative rhythm of cross-cultural collision, and a carnival-like expression of the vitality of the underprivileged.

After reading it, Cao Yang felt that what these media outlets said made sense.

Slumdog Millionaire is indeed Joker's biggest competitor, and the film is actually relevant to the current economic crisis.

In addition, this movie is an inspirational film, featuring children, slums, the gap between rich and poor, triumphs, and survival! These are all elements that the Oscars love to have, and behind all of this, it can be connected to the American Dream.

One of the purposes of cultural export is the American Dream.

This is political correctness.

"Slumdog Millionaire," on the other hand, is a geographical reversal, essentially a complete deconstruction of the narrative logic of the American Dream, and a dark allegory of the American Dream.

Cao Yang knew very well that if it weren't for the financial crisis and the global economic depression that gave "Joker" its "sacredness," in other years, "Joker" would have had no chance of competing with films like "Slumdog Millionaire" for the Best Picture and Best Director awards.

He's now a little unsure what Oscar will choose.

As members of the Big Six, Warner and Fox employ similar tactics when it comes to winning awards.

Perhaps it's time to gamble on luck.

On February 21, the day before the Oscars ceremony, the performers held their final rehearsal.

Anne Hathaway was not only nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress for her role in "My Sister's Wedding," but she will also be a guest performer, performing a song and dance routine with host Hugh Jackman.

After the rehearsal, Hugh Jackman smiled and said to Anne Hathaway, "Anne, how about we grab a drink later?"

Anne Hathaway shook her head, winked at Hugh Jackman, and said with a smile, "Hugh, I have plans tonight. Are you sure you want to come have a drink with me?"

Hugh Jackman was taken aback. He knew Anne Hathaway had a boyfriend, but wasn't he married himself?

It's just a drink, it's not a big deal.

However, Anne Hathaway's expression was off.

She said she had an appointment.

It's obvious it wasn't with her boyfriend.

If it's her boyfriend, she'll only say that he'll pick her up later, instead of saying she has plans.

It certainly wasn't with other female friends; if it were, she would definitely have mentioned their names.

Hugh Jackman, an Australian, is certainly no ordinary person to have achieved such success in Hollywood.

Before graduating from college, he received an offer to star in the TV series "Corelli". It was during this first major performance that Hugh Jackman met his current wife, Deborah Lee Furness.

Hugh Jackman was just a student who hadn't graduated yet, while Deborah Lee Furness was already a very famous actress, director, and producer in Australia.

Furthermore, as a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she has extensive connections in the United States and has even won the Best Actress Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

And so, thanks to his handsome looks, Hugh Jackman successfully won over Deborah Lee Furness, who was 13 years his senior.

Later, through his wife's introduction, he met Rupert Murdoch, a media mogul born in Australia.

Rupert Murdoch's relationship with 20th Century Fox needs no further explanation. It was thanks to Murdoch's support that Hugh Jackman landed the role of Wolverine in Fox's "X-Men".

It was this movie that launched his career in Hollywood.

Hugh Jackman is a smart man, and smart people are very easy to communicate with.

He only thought about it for a moment before he vaguely guessed who was supporting Anne Hathaway behind the scenes.

Hugh Jackman immediately put on an apologetic expression and quickly said, "I'm sorry, Annie. You know I didn't mean anything by it. I'm already married. I was just expressing my gratitude to you. You've taught me so much in dance."

Anne Hathaway listened to Hugh Jackman's nonsense and just wanted to laugh. When did she ever teach him to dance?

"I know, Hugh. Well then, goodbye."

"Okay, Annie, goodbye."

After Hugh Jackman finished speaking, he hesitated for only a moment before adding, "Annie, if you have the chance, please give my regards. The Triple Crown is the greatest and most remarkable artistic achievement in the world."

(End of this chapter)