Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1476 Technical Achievement Award and Honor Award
"For years, the rumor in Hollywood was that the Oscar voters had some kind of grudge against Steven Spielberg. He makes artistically excellent films, and he also makes popular films with the audience, and sometimes he does both in the same movie.

But the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has never awarded the Oscar for Best Director to perhaps the most successful director in history.

In the past decade or so, two other young but rapidly rising directors, Ronald Lee and James Cameron, have also faced this problem. They may also face the situation of being ignored by the judges for a long time for some unclear reasons.

This year, though, the Academy, at least in Spielberg's case, will be different. The 66th Academy Awards will be Spielberg's night. He's made a movie they can't turn down. 'Schindler's List' is clearly the best film released in 1993, so far above the other nominees in artistry, ambition and importance that it's inconceivable that it won't win the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director."

A week before the awards ceremony, various media predictions began. The one that movie fans were most concerned about was Chicago film critic Roger Ebert.

At the 65th Academy Awards last year, Ebert correctly predicted out of major nominations, earning him the title of prediction master. This year, everyone wants to hear his opinion.

Roger Ebert is well-informed in the industry and knows that Spielberg actually has two films in the running this year. His "Jurassic Park" has become a battering ram in Hollywood, opening up markets everywhere.

Released last June, it has become the most commercially successful film of all time, which in itself would be a year’s work for most directors.

But then came Schindler's List, another three-hour black-and-white film about the Holocaust, at the end of the year, and the audience was shocked by its power. Whether in terms of subject matter or artistic height, it would be the peak of any other director's career.

So this year only one of the two films was nominated for an award, which is equivalent to putting all the goodwill gained by Jurassic Park on Schindler's List.

"Maybe Hollywood has been waiting all these years for Spielberg to really come into his own. He's somehow made his movies look easy, and maybe the Academy voters are dismissive or jealous. But 'Schindler's List' never looks easy.

Spielberg’s efforts should not go unnoticed by Academy voters, and this year is finally the time for Oscar voters to finally pay tribute to Spielberg.”

Roger Ebert attributed the failure of Spielberg's previous films, Indiana Jones, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and ET, to the fact that he was too talented and others could not see how hard he worked on the films.

This is purely a way to save face and to praise Spielberg once again. Such a statement cannot explain why his "The Color Purple" was nominated for Best Picture but lost the Best Director award.

Later, Spielberg increased his budget for public relations, and this situation would never happen again. All the previous frustrations became reasons for him to win the Best Director award, as today, two films a year have reached the peak of both business and art.

Roger Ebert then moved on to predicting the acting awards.

"I believe Tom Hanks will win Best Actor for his performance in 'Philadelphia,' in which he plays a lawyer who dies...Voters will vote for him because he gave a strong, powerful performance -- and because it gives them a chance to support the first big-budget, major-star Hollywood film on a relevant subject.

They’ll also realize that Hanks, a brilliant comedian, crosses over into serious territory here to do some of the best work of his career.

Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day would be a close second, another excellent performance against very strong competition, but Hopkins won Best Actor just two years ago and voters won't be choosing him again any time soon.

Liam Neeson was perfect in Schindler's List, but it was the film that was great, not the character. Daniel Day-Lewis was fine in In the Name of the Father, but that was irrelevant: as a British actor, he was doomed to fail to win, because Anthony Hopkins had run out of British actors' luck two years earlier.

Seeing this, Ronald was very satisfied. This reason was perfect and people could accept it. After all, the Oscars were Hollywood awards, and it was not right for foreigners to always take away the best actor and actress awards.

Of course, the real reason is hidden in these predictions, and not many people in the industry know it. Only some executives of major studios can vaguely sense Ronald and Spielberg's public relations strategy, deliberately suppressing Miramax.

For example, this prediction by Roger Ebert completely abandons objectivity and simply belittles the works released by Miramax.

Holly Hunter's advantage in the Best Actress category is too obvious. Since her award at Cannes last year, people have been discussing why her acting is so outstanding. However, Roger Ebert still mentioned a nominee who might be a surprise, Angela Bassett.

She plays Tina Turner in "What's Love Got to Do With It". She performed well in the singing scenes and the domestic violence scenes, which require completely different acting skills. She may become an unexpected winner.

For example, for the Best Supporting Actor, he was discussing Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive and Ralph Fiennes in Schindler's List. Pete Postlethwaite, who was nominated for In the Name of the Father, was already included in the nominations for making up the numbers with Leonardo Dicaprio.

The same goes for Best Supporting Actress, with Roger Ebert talking up Winona Ryder's performance in The Age of Innocence and Rosie Perez in Fearless.

Anna Paquin, who played the little girl in The Piano Lesson, and Emma Thompson in In the Name of the Father were also swept into the ranks of runners-up.

Ronald was very satisfied with this timely prediction. The judges who had not yet voted could also be influenced by this report before the deadline. Many judges like to follow the crowd and vote in accordance with the final award. Roger Ebert, who predicted ten out of eleven items in the last session, has a good reputation here.

"Call Roger. We are going to syndicate his and Mr. Cisco's weekly film reviews on the DDH network. We also invite him to come to New York every year to do a special program..."

By giving Albert some ideas for win-win cooperation, Ronald has done a lot for Spielberg this year. I hope he will return the favor in the future.

"let's go?"

Today Diane wore a black sleeveless dress, which made her look very sexy with red high heels. Her hairstyle was casual and relaxed, giving her the look of a mature Los Angeles woman.

"Yeah, let's go..." Ronald stretched out his arm for her to hold, and the two of them took a car to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel, where the annual Golden Globe Awards were held, to attend the annual Academy Awards for Technical Achievement.

This award was originally presented along with other acting awards, but as the ceremony dragged on, these awards were removed from the live broadcast that evening and instead held one to two weeks before the ceremony.

Some of the award-giving footage here will also be inserted into the Oscars ceremony for a few seconds, so the award-giving and the people attending the ceremony are not so formal.

This technical achievement award is generally given to winners who have made important contributions to the invention or improvement of equipment for filming.

This year, for example, there is the inventor of the Cinemills lamp protection system that protects lights from exploding bulbs, the Unilux H3000 flash system, the Ronford-Baker metal camera tripod, and the Duo audio level meter compound meter.

Of course, all winners still have to wear tuxedos and bow ties. The actresses presenting the awards also have to wear appropriate evening gowns. After all, this is still part of the Oscars in theory, but since the late 1980s, the winners of this technical achievement award have only received certificates, not golden men.

"We know that movies cannot be made without film, and film cannot be made without the magical silver iodide as a photosensitive substance, which has created many immortal screen images. However, the health risks of silver ions to operators and the harm to the environment have always been issues that Hollywood needs to solve urgently.

Today I would like to introduce Mr. David Degenkolb, who invented the silver ion recovery system, which eliminates the hazardous waste silver ions in the developing and fixing water and makes it possible to recycle the expensive silver ions...

Let us applaud and welcome this inventor who made me look so good on the screen to the stage to receive the award..."

“Thank you. I am very happy to know that major studios in Hollywood and other parts of the world are using this recycling technology…”

After presenting the five awards, Diane and another award presenter, Laura Dern, also met up in the Hilton Hotel's banquet hall to catch up. It had been a long time since the two of them had a good chat (showing off each other's success in career, love and family...).

Ronald went into the room to make a phone call. Today's Technical Achievement Award ceremony was over, and it was time for nominations for next year's Technical Achievement Award.

Of course, the Technical Achievement Award is not like other art awards, which review the nominees of the year in the second year. Its awards cover all previous years.

That is to say, for the 1994 Academy Award for Technical Achievement, all technologies invented before that year that did not win the Technical Achievement Award can be nominated for the award list.

Moreover, the list of winners of the Technical Achievement Award is not selected by the voting judges of the union itself, but by the governors of the Hollywood Academy of Technology and Arts, who only need to approve it during the meeting.

Therefore, the most important criterion for weighing the awards each year is which Hollywood bigwigs and stars mention them. First, we make sure that many important people mention the awards, and then we rank the rest based on seniority, starting from the earliest silent film era, and then we list the important technical inventions that have not won awards one by one.

"Francis, I want to nominate my friend Yan Zhongfang's lightning special effects lighting fixtures. Can you help me?"

"Of course, just send the documents over and I'll sign them."

Ronald first approached Coppola, who was resting in a winery near San Francisco. When he heard that Ronald was going to be nominated for a Technical Achievement Award, he called him specifically to hear the news, which showed that he was very concerned about it.

Treating a Hollywood tycoon or the owner of a Wall Street listed company who might invest in your project, isn't this just doing a favor for nothing?

"I'd like to trouble you to say a few nice words..."

"That's no problem. Without your lightning lamp in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the final effect would have been much worse..." Coppola agreed and wrote a letter of recommendation on how Yan Zhongfang's lightning lamp was a revolutionary improvement over the previous ones.

"Thank you so much, I owe you one. Also, what do you think of that matter, is there any hope?"

"That's not a technical achievement award that we can get together. I'll try my best, but it's hard to say. The Oscar honorary awards are also given out every now and then. Now many old Hollywood stars are lining up..."

Ronald was talking about promoting Roger Corman's Honorary Oscar. He had submitted motions to the Academy's executive committee in previous years, but they were all ignored.

This year, Ronald decided to unite all the graduates of Roger Corman Film University to collectively launch an initiative, so that at least the executive committee members would be aware of the existence of this force.

Coppola, Scorsese, Cameron, Jonathan Demme, Ronald Lee, almost half of the famous directors of the New Hollywood Movement, all got their first directing opportunity from Roger Corman, and also learned the real commercial film shooting skills from him...

Save the budget, spend the money on what can be seen on the screen, and finally let the investors make money...

Next, Ronald made another phone call, and Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorsese and others all agreed to co-sign the recommendation for Yan Zhongfang and Roger Corman's award nomination.

Accordingly, Ronald may have gone out to provide further additional support for Tom Hanks, the Best Actor for Demy's "The Philadelphia Story," and Winona Ryder, the Best Supporting Actress for Scorsese's "The Age of Innocence."

Both films are a bit far from the Best Director award, but being able to retain an acting award can be considered a success.

The impact of Oscars on box office has been growing in recent years. If Scorsese's The Age of Innocence wins an award, it would be common to reprint hundreds of copies of a film that has already been taken off the screen to satisfy audiences who are curious about Oscar-winning films.

As for "Philadelphia Story", Ronald has already prepared a plan to add a thousand copies, and will work overtime to print them as soon as the best actor is announced...

Ronald also called Spielberg and asked for a recommendation for Yan Zhongfang. In addition, he also had a lot of good feelings about Roger Corman's movies, and Spielberg agreed to recommend him for an honorary award.

Finally, Ronald called Cameron, his best friend in the circle...

"Jim, I have two letters for you to sign..."

"Of course, just send it to me. By the way, I heard that the release of The Fugitive in Chinese theaters is not going well. Is it necessary for our movie to be released in theaters?"

"What happened? Let me ask..." Ronald was also stunned when he heard the news. Wasn't it agreed upon?
(End of this chapter)