Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1624: Not seeking a prize, just a nomination

The day of the annual Oscar nomination announcement finally arrived, and Ronald sat in front of the TV with his family early.

I won the Best Director Award last year, so I feel more relaxed this year. I am more interested in seeing the trends in the industry. The Oscar is an award within the industry. The nominations for this award are voted by people from various unions, which can represent the insiders' understanding of the industry's situation throughout the previous year.

This year Ronald was relaxed, his main purpose was to cheer for his schoolmate friend Ang Lee. His film "Sense and Sensibility" received a very good response. Most people were surprised at his ability to skillfully manipulate British costume dramas. After all, this was his first time directing a big English film, and it was surprising to see him at this level.

In addition, Mike Figgis, the director of "Leaving Las Vegas" released by his own company, also enjoyed public relations services for the first time. He attended many canvassing parties, appeared at many awards, and was nominated for several film critics awards. The public relations department of New United Artists was very optimistic about his nomination.

"The nominees for Best Director are…"

The person who announced the nominations this year was the famous film composer and record industry tycoon Quincy Jones. The five nominees for Best Director he announced were:

Chris Noon – Baby Piggy

Mel Gibson - Braveheart

Tim Robbins - Death Row Walking

Mike Figgis – Leaving Las Vegas

Michael Radford – The Postman

There was nothing fancy about this year's nomination announcements, as Quincy Jones continued to announce the nominees for Best Original Screenplay at a breakneck pace...

However, Ronald was a little shocked. What was going on? This year's nominations were completely abnormal.

Apart from anything else, the Oscars have never been so generous to foreign directors, unless you have already made movies in Hollywood as the main place of your film career, or the movie is very sensational, higher than the movies nominated this year.

The two films nominated this year were directed by Chris Noonan, an Australian who had no previous experience, only a student project and a short film, both of which were shot and screened in Australia.

Another actor who filmed The Postman, Michael Radford, is a British man. He was previously unknown in Hollywood and the few films he had made were all set in Britain.

These two films are not like The Last Emperor in 1987, which is obviously superior to other films in terms of artistic quality and box office. Moreover, Bertolucci has long been a famous European film master...

In contrast, Ang Lee had already made several films that won awards at European film festivals, and his first major English-language production had received great reviews. Moreover, Sense and Sensibility was an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel, and the success of the adaptation almost shocked the British film industry.

How come he didn't even get a nomination?
Is it racial discrimination? Are these two white directors from Anglo-Saxon countries? It doesn't seem so, because Ron Howard, an authentic American-born director who has also worked in Hollywood for many years and directed Apollo 13, was also not selected.

"Hey hey? Ronnie?"

Diane was saying something to Ronald, but found that Ronald didn't respond. She felt strange and waved her hand in front of Ronald's eyes. However, Ronald was lost in thought, his whole attention was focused, and he didn't respond...

"Ronnie, Ronnie?" Diane grabbed Ronald's arm and shook him.

"Ah, what, what did you say..." Ronald was finally shaken back to consciousness.

"Oh, I want to ask you, is Sharon Stone's acting in Vegas really that good?" Diane paid more attention to the Best Actress award and found a name that was different from the other nominees, which made her feel strange.

"Her? How can she have acting skills?" Ronald looked at the list Diane had written down on the table. The other names on the list were similar to those of the Screen Actors Guild Awards that had just ended, such as Meryl Streep in The Bridges of Madison County, Elisabeth Shue in Leaving Las Vegas, Emma Thompson in Sense and Sensibility, and Susan Sarandon in A Row... Only Joan Allen, who played Mrs. Nixon in Nixon, was bumped up to the Best Supporting Actress award.

Ronald was surprised that Sharon Stone was not nominated for an Oscar when she was not even nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. And from his point of view, Joan Allen's performance was impressive. If anyone could be compared with the two favorites, Streep and Sarandon, it was her.

Ronald called his assistant and asked for the complete list of Oscar nominations, and then took the list of nominations for the Directors Guild Awards and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and compared them one by one.

Soon, he found some strange choices in the nomination of another award, that is, the best supporting actor. Kevin Bacon, who played a death row inmate abused by the warden in "First Degree Murder", and Kenneth Branagh, who played Iago in the traditional Shakespeare play "Othello", two actors whose acting skills were well received by critics, lost the Oscar nomination. Brad Pitt in "12 Monkeys" and James Cromwell, who played a farmer in "Pig Baby", were replaced by Oscar nominations.

"Weird..."

Ronald was puzzled. This year's Oscar nominations were close to those of the Golden Globes, rather than union awards with a similar judging panel composition.

The Golden Globe Awards have always been an award that is randomly chosen for the sake of celebrity attendance. Some smaller awards, such as the Supporting Actor award, are actually up for grabs. How come this year's prediction of the Oscars is more accurate than the various union awards, which have always been very accurate?

……

In the next few days, Ronald made many calls to his friends in the circle and talked about the strange phenomenon of this year's Oscar nominations.

Most people just felt that although it was unusual, it was still within the range of unpopularity in previous years and was not too exaggerated. However, Ronald always felt it was a bit strange, because it was obvious that these nominations were unlikely to win the final Oscar. Spending a lot of money just for a nomination? This price seemed a bit too high.

Richard looked at the situation based on his network of friends. The obvious candidates for the nomination were Sharon Stone and Brad Pitt.

Not only have these two attended almost all the recent campaign parties, they have also placed advertisements in the film review columns of industry magazines and newspapers. And their campaign ads are very obviously targeted at them personally.

For example, Brad Pitt's "12 Monkeys" also stars Bruce Willis and Christopher Plummer. However, the advertisement uses Brad Pitt as the main star to call for people to vote for him.

The same is true for Sharon Stone's "Casino Jackpot". The stars of the same film, such as Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and James Wood, did not get the right to be the first to canvass votes. It seems that Sharon Stone is the only star in "Casino Jackpot".

Is there a precedent in Hollywood where someone has spent so much energy just to get a nomination to increase their own value? Ronald also found Yang Yanzi and asked her to do some statistics on whether there have been such cases in the past 20 years.

"This is the situation. She is the only case in the past few years..." Yang Yanzi quickly came to the conclusion.

"Okay, I understand, thank you... Well, don't tell anyone else about this... ahem..." Ronald felt a little embarrassed when he heard the name, so he had to ask them not to leak this conclusion.

Yang Yanzi's conclusion was indeed embarrassing. In the past period of time, the most obvious case of seeking nominations but not awards was Jennifer Tilly, who Ronald had mentioned. She spent her own money to advertise in industry magazines and got a nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Apart from this, it seemed that no one else was doing PR in this way, seeking nominations but not awards.

Thinking of what Jennifer Tilly told him at the Oscars last year, that asking for a nomination would greatly increase her value. After she was nominated, she kept getting good scripts and her pay increased a lot. Ronald felt embarrassed. He was opening a new Oscar track, which indirectly led to his good friend Ang Lee not getting a nomination for Best Director...

……

"Ang, you and your wife and children are welcome to come to my home. I have specially invited a famous Cantonese chef from Chinatown. Let's have a meal together..."

On the day before the Directors Guild Awards, Ronald invited Ang Lee and his family to his home. He also invited some guests, all of whom were producers and young directors in the industry, to fully demonstrate in front of everyone that he had a special relationship with Ang Lee.

He accidentally triggered a chain reaction, which resulted in his friend Ang Lee not being nominated. It is not too far-fetched to say that this was his responsibility, but Ronald still felt that he owed something.

Inviting the other party to a dinner at home, and being the only guest of honor who brings his family to the dinner, is also a gesture, sending a clear signal to all people in the circle that Ang Lee is a good friend of theirs, the kind who can be admitted into the family, and for my sake, please do not have any racial discrimination against him in the future, otherwise I will intervene.

Ang Lee didn't know about this yet. He was very grateful to Ronald and was curious about why Ronald liked Chinese culture so much. There was a small garden and a nine-curve bridge in his home. The scenery changed beautifully as he moved. Both sons took photos very happily.

When directors get together, they naturally talk about film projects. Ang Lee admired Joan Allen, who was nominated for the Guild Awards, and said he really liked her performance in Nixon.

He is also an experienced director who has shot four theatrical films and has a lot of experience in training actors. Generally speaking, if the fledgling actors do what you say, the effect will be better.

But the disadvantage is that they don't know what they are acting, communication is difficult, and they don't understand what the director wants to achieve. It often takes a lot of shooting to pick out the right one. This process is also a kind of training and learning for actors.

Old actors are skilled and can perform well if they clearly state the effect they want. But the disadvantage is that they know too much and sometimes their performances are too artificial. Even an actor like Emma Thompson, who has a deep knowledge of British drama tradition, sometimes misunderstands the state of the character when writing her own script.

But she is a very smart actor. Ang Lee only needs to give some pointers, and Emma will know what went wrong and how to adjust it before she even finishes speaking.

Those who can really practice and still be fresh, have skills, understand the role well, but can also perform the feeling of a new actor, are all top-notch actors. Originally, Ang Lee always praised Meryl Streep for being able to do this. After watching Nixon today, he felt that Joan Allen was also an actor who could reach this level.

Hearing his praise, Ronald certainly understood that Ang Lee must have wanted to use Joan Allen in the film "The Ice Storm" adapted from the novel he originally wanted to shoot.

This was a small matter for him, and he immediately said that he would support all of Ang Lee's casting decisions, and if the budget was not enough, he could increase it. As for Joan Allen, he could contact her himself. A good actor would definitely want to work with a good director, so he didn't need to show up himself.

Ang Lee was also very happy to hear that Ronald classified him as a good director that good actors really wanted to work with.

After staying at Ronald's house for just one day, Ronald and his two families set out together the next day to attend the Directors Guild Awards ceremony.

Perhaps inspired by the Screen Actors Guild Awards, this year's Directors Guild Awards also played a trick. Although no TV station was willing to broadcast the Directors Guild Awards ceremony (no TV audience wanted to watch a bunch of middle-aged directors presenting awards, and actors were another matter), they also played a live broadcast...

I think the Directors Guild Awards are divided into two parts, the film part will be awarded in Los Angeles, and the television part is traditionally awarded in New York.

This year, satellite links were used to connect the venues in New York and Los Angeles, allowing directors in both locations to see the presentation of the other half of the awards.

"Hello, hello..."

Ronald happened to be sitting with the family of Apollo 13 director Ron Howard. A chubby red-haired girl greeted him when she saw him.

"Hello, are you Long's daughter?"

"Yes, my name is Bryce Dallas Howard. Are you Director Ronald? I'm a fan of yours. Can you sign an autograph for me? Thank you, thank you...Oh, this is the best birthday present I've ever had."

"Is today your birthday? What a coincidence? Let's take a photo together?" Ronald took out a Polaroid camera and asked the fat girl to take a photo with himself and Diane.

"Ah, thank you. Today is my 15th birthday..."

The little fat girl didn't expect that she could get a photo with Ronald's family. She was even happier. Her fat face was smiling, and she might have been sweating because of nervousness.

Ronald took out a pen and wrote "To Bryce Dallas Howard" on the back of the photo.

"I'll tell you something in secret. I'm still my dad's assistant on the Apollo 13 crew. You can write to my favorite assistant director..."

"Ha, you just turned 15 today. Apollo 13 was filmed the year before last, so you were only 13. The Directors Guild is going to investigate your father for using child labor..."

"Ah, I was just kidding. I was just there as an actor. I played the role of the girl in the yellow dress."

Ronald made a joke. Seeing the little fat girl's nervous look, he laughed and wrote on the back of the photo:

"To Bryce Dallas Howard - a lady with a lot of acting talent."