Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 572 The dust has settled, difficulty

Whether "1939" will ultimately be submitted to the Oscars is unknown to Wu Chen, but Paramount has already confirmed the release date for "Black Swan".

The call was from Rebecca Sarkin of Paramount.

"Wu, we have officially confirmed the release date for 'Black Swan'."

"October 12th."

Wu Chen listened to Rebecca's voice and murmured the date.

“Yes,” Rebecca Sarkin said confidently, “we all agreed that releasing the film during the Christmas season would give it the biggest advantage when it comes to the Oscars.”

Of course, we have even more confidence in the quality of the film itself.

Paramount isn't stupid. The reason they dared to release an art thriller during the fiercely competitive Christmas season was entirely based on the amazing feedback they received after internal screenings.

Even so, this year's Christmas season is a veritable den of dragons and tigers.

The Coen brothers' "True Grit," Disney's sci-fi blockbuster "Tron: Legacy," and Jeff Bridges' "Gulliver's Travels" are all scheduled for this release window.

Each one is a formidable heavyweight contender.

Meanwhile, in Greenwich Village, New York.

In Lee An's personal studio, he and producer Gil Nate are scrambling to figure out the budget for "Life of Pi".

“Li, we have no other choice,” Jill Nate spread her hands, looking at Ang Lee with a complicated expression. “We have to reduce the budget, otherwise Fox will not start this project.”

Ang Lee remained silent, his gaze falling on a copy of The Hollywood Reporter on a table not far away.

A corner of the newspaper contained news that Wu Chen's original 3D blockbuster "Interstellar" had officially wrapped up filming.

Four months have passed, and Wu Chen has already finished filming a 200 million dollar sci-fi blockbuster, while his project is still stuck in the budget approval stage.

Although his personal preparations never stopped, without funds, it was all just empty talk.

After a long silence, Li An sighed and had no choice but to compromise: "Fine! For that massive shipwreck, let's modify the technical plan again and see if we can reduce costs. Let's come up with a new budget."

Even for an Oscar-winning director like him, box office appeal wasn't enough for Fox to fully commit to his artistic adventures in Hollywood.

September passed quickly. "Under the Hawthorn Tree" is still showing in theaters and is just one step away from breaking 100 million yuan in box office revenue. Meanwhile, the promotional battle between "Reign of Assassins" and "Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame" is already in full swing.

At this point, there was less than a week left until the September 30th deadline for submitting Oscar nominations for Best Foreign Language Film.

Officials from the Film Bureau are holding a final round of discussions regarding this year's sole available spot.

"Huayi was very proactive and submitted a lot of materials, hoping that 'Aftershock' could be submitted for selection."

"To be honest, if we're really talking about artistic quality, 'The Great Earthquake' isn't actually as good as '1939' or 'Under the Hawthorn Tree'."

"The subject matter of 'Under the Hawthorn Tree' is unsuitable and unpopular, so let's choose between '1939' and 'The Great Earthquake.' Let's cast our votes and see what the current opinions are."

The group exchanged glances, and then each wrote down the name of the film they supported on their own slips of paper.

When they collected it, the result surprised everyone present.

The vote count showed an overwhelming result.

Almost everyone chose Wu Chen's "1939". "But '1939' might not have a very good chance at the Oscars," someone questioned.

A senior manager smiled and succinctly stated:
"But we don't necessarily need '1939' to achieve anything at the Oscars, do we?"
It represents our attitude! Besides, it seems a bit unreasonable on the international stage for us not to submit a film that won the Berlin Golden Bear.

Upon hearing this, everyone smiled knowingly.

The results came out quickly, and the report was sent to Zhang Hongsen and Tong Gang's offices.

The two of them glanced at it and then signed their names.

Shortly after, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television officially released an announcement on its official website:
"After careful evaluation by experts organized by our bureau, it has been decided that the film '1939,' jointly produced by China Film Group, Star Cinema, and August First Film Studio, will represent mainland China in the selection for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards."

This is to inform you!

With this, the three films representing Chinese-language cinema in its bid for the Oscars this year have all been decided.

The mainland submitted "1939," the box office champion of the first half of the year and winner of the Berlin Golden Bear.
Taiwan submitted "Monga," a film that created a box office miracle.
Hong Kong submitted "Echoes of the Rainbow," winner of the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Film.

Upon hearing the news, Feng Xiaogang was undoubtedly the most dejected.

"This is outrageous!" He slammed his fist on the table in his office, furious. "We sent '1939,' it was obvious it had no chance of being nominated! And they still want to choose it? The Golden Bear Award is nothing special!"

Feng Xiaogang was furious.

Wu Chen ruined the 600 million yuan box office. He, the "second highest-grossing person in China," already had a weak presence. Now, he couldn't even snatch the "Olympic bid" spot.

Wang Zhonglei could only sigh helplessly.

Huayi Brothers has done everything it should. It can only be said that, in the official priority ranking, Feng Xiaogang is still more than one level below Wu Chen and Zhang Yimou.

Netizens didn't have much objection to the result, but compared to the past, while they supported it, they weren't particularly optimistic about winning the award.

“‘1939’ is definitely a good representative of mainland China, it carries significant weight and even won the Golden Bear! But getting nominated for an Oscar is indeed quite difficult.”

"Indeed, I feel like we could try our luck with other technical awards? After all, it's a pseudo-one-shot film, technically it's really impressive!"

"I agree with the comment above. It's too difficult for '1939' to be a foreign language film. Maybe we should try to win other awards. There might be a surprise."

"Take it easy."

After learning the results, Wu Chen didn't sit idle.

Having submitted "1939," he naturally couldn't just sit idly by, so he immediately called Jason Blum to inquire about the possibility of a public relations effort.

Jason frowned slightly on the other end of the phone.

“Wu, it is indeed very difficult, and you know the reasons yourself,” he analyzed.

"The preliminary selection for Best Foreign Language Film is conducted by a 'Foreign Language Film Jury' formed by volunteers within the academy, who watch and score the films collectively, unlike the awards stage where all judges can make their selections."

All you can do is try to get Universal to help you out. But their own core Oscar contender this year is "The Kids Are All Right," so they can only allocate limited resources.

As for Paramount, your "Black Swan" is also scheduled for release this year, so they're definitely pushing that film a lot.”

"Um"

(End of this chapter)