Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1379: Mysterious New Prize-Winning Strategy
“Welcome Director Ang Lee back from Berlin with great success…”

Ronald and a group of people were at the airport, holding banners and waiting for Ang Lee, who won the award in Berlin, to get off the plane. He didn't know how the Chinese usually welcomed important people, so he asked the counselor and was told that they usually used banners, so he quickly asked someone to go to Chinatown to find someone to make a large one.

"Here I come, here I come..." Yang Yanzi, who is in charge of Chinese films at Daydream, also came. She first saw Ang Lee pulling out the luggage, and immediately directed the people welcoming him to hold up banners to signal him.

"Ang, what a great movie..." Ronald went up to hug his old friend and classmate, and then asked the photographer to take a photo of Ang Lee holding the Golden Bear. This time, there were two Golden Bears tied, so Ang Lee and mainland director Xie each received one.

"First we'll welcome you, your family will be here too, and then you'll be busy again..." Ronald hugged Ang Lee and handed him a pair of sunglasses so he wouldn't be overwhelmed by the flash lights of the reporters on the scene, and then they all left the airport and got into the car.

"I'm still a little uncomfortable with it. It's like a dream. When I went to Berlin, I was still carrying the copy, but when I came back, it was already..."

"You've become a film master after you came back. This is what it's like to win a gold medal at a major European film festival. You'll get used to it slowly." Ronald patted his shoulder and went to stay at a hotel near Chinatown. This "The Wedding Banquet" won the Golden Bear Award. According to the promotion method of art films, there will be intensive film festival screenings and activities waiting for the main creators to participate.

"Cai Bu Long Dong Clang... Bang Bang Bang..." After picking up Ang Lee's family, they went to a restaurant in Chinatown for dinner. When the Chinese people there learned that a Chinese director had won one of the top three European film awards, they spontaneously brought out the lion dance to celebrate.

"I called my parents after I won the award. Do you know what my dad said?"

After drinking the Moutai brought by Ronald, Ang Lee was a little tipsy, so he immediately switched to a lower-alcohol rice wine. As a result, after mixing the two kinds of wine, he became even more drunk, and started to say things he would not normally say.

When he made his first film, he had not achieved much success. This time he won the Golden Bear Award, which made him one of the most powerful Chinese directors. As a result, his father replied that since he had won the award, could he come back and do some serious work, such as teaching film at National Taiwan University or becoming a professor?

Seeing that Ang Lee was almost drunk, Ronald had to ask his wife to take better care of him while he got up and went home.

"Hey? Ronald, aren't you going to celebrate with us?" Ang Lee was suddenly awakened by the voice, still holding the Golden Bear tightly in his hand.

"Sorry, I have to accompany my wife today. She has an event today..."

"Oh, my wife is the most important, the most important. The little success we have achieved is all due to the good care my wife has given us..."

Ang Lee said this when he was half drunk, which made his wife very happy, because people speak the truth when they are drunk.

……

"Diane, are you not ready yet?" Ronald opened the door and found Diane still in the bedroom.

"Come on, which one should I wear?"

Diane opened the door and saw all kinds of clothes and high heels on the carpet...

Today's occasion is not a formal one like an awards ceremony, and I can't wear the custom-made Armani clothes that I endorse, so I couldn't pick out anything satisfactory among the clothes I bought myself.

"I don't know. Put it on and let me see..." Ronald understood that the most important thing at this time was not to be perfunctory...

“This one is great!”

After more than half an hour of dressing show, Ronald finally found a suitable outfit. It was a black and white vertical striped office girl style outfit, coupled with fitted pants and light blue high heels, the image of a sexy strong woman was ready to emerge.

"Add this..." Ronald picked up a pair of platinum diamond earrings, which seemed low-key but were very meaningful, and helped Diane put them on. Finally, his wife went out happily and confidently.

"arrive……"

The car stopped at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater not far away. Ronald held out his hand for Diane to hold, and they walked in together.

"Hi Diane. Ronald, please take a rest there."

The new president of the Academy of Motion Picture Technology and Arts, Robert Raimi, was waiting for them there.

"I'm here today as Diane's assistant, you don't have to worry about me..." Ronald took Diane's bag, took out a small bag for touch-up makeup and a bottle of energy drink from it, gave Diane a sip first, and then asked her to take the makeup bag to touch up her makeup.

The previous president, Karl Malden, was a chatterbox old man. He was an annoying guy who would go up and talk nonsense for five minutes at the beginning of the formal award ceremony.

The newly appointed Remy, on the contrary, is a concise manager who previously served as president of New World Pictures, which was sold by Roger Corman. He came to power amid calls for reform and is very clear about the interests of various parties.

This time, Ronald agreed to let his wife Diane, the winner of the Best Supporting Actress award last year, announce the nomination list for this year's Oscars. This was not only a way to respect tradition, but also gave Remy some support. Some minor conflicts between the two many years ago also disappeared.

"You have to be careful. The videotape tactics you invented last year have a new upgraded version this year. It's very powerful..." Robert Ramey reminded Ronald while Diane was putting on makeup.

"Oh, what is it?" Ronald also used a lot of videotape tactics this year, including the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor for "A Few Good Men", as well as the Best Original Song and Best Actress for "The Bodyguard", and a series of makeup and editing and directing awards for Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula. All of the videotapes with gift certificates were sent to the judges' homes.

Remi is the president of the academy. He must have seen the nomination results and found something unexpected, so he reminded Ronald.

But Raimi was unwilling to go into detail, and just told him that after the nominations were announced, he would know which movies he should investigate.

"Is it about to start?" Diane came out after putting on her makeup. Ronald took the makeup bag from her hand and led her to wait at the door beside the stage.

"Soon……"

Raimi really wanted to say as little as possible. He had no intention of reviewing the glorious history of the Oscars and just spoke directly to the camera:
"It is my great honor and pleasure to announce the nominations for the 65th Academy Awards.

What makes me even more happy is that I will be announcing this list together with last year's Best Supporting Actress winner, Diane Lane..."

Remi cleared half of the podium and stretched out his arm toward the door.

"Here we go..." Ronald patted Diane's waist.

"Hmph..." Dai An glanced at him with her almond-shaped eyes full of love, then deliberately swung her hips and walked up to him in a charming manner.

"It's a good deal for those Hollywood movie fans watching the broadcast on TV..." Ronald applauded along with the audience below.

"Thank you, Bob. It's great to be here. Good afternoon, everyone. The nominees for Best Supporting Actor in a movie released in 1992 are..."

Raimi's reform started with a style that was more suitable for the tastes of young audiences. He did not look back on any history and announced the nomination list directly without any pretense.

Diane and he read out the names of five nominees, and photos of the nominees appeared one by one on the TV wall behind them.

"Jay Davidson, The Crying Game."

Ronald had never heard of the first one. He knew that Jack Nicholson, who was one of the few good guys in the Best Supporting Actor category, played an officer at the Guantanamo base and his performance as a villain was definitely a rare good one in recent years.

But this "Crying Game" is something I've never seen or even heard of.

"Gene Hackman, Unforgiven."

This is a western film directed and starred by Clint Eastwood. After Dances with Wolves revived the western film, Eastwood also gained the favor of film producers. From the modern urban police and gangster film theme "Dirty Harry" series, he returned to the western film hero with which he made his name.

"Al Pacino, Tycoon Game"

This is a movie adapted from a Broadway play, starring many talented actors, including Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris and others.

"Jack Nicholson, there are only a few good guys..."

Ronald breathed a sigh of relief. This crying game had really made him nervous for a while.

"The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Marisa Tomei, my cousin Vinny. Vanessa Redgrave, this is a love story..."

Diane and Remy did not stop and immediately announced the Best Supporting Actress. There was another movie he had never seen or heard of, Howards End. Although it starred Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson, it did not make much of a splash in the American market.

This film mainly tells the stories of several families before World War I. Such films have received much higher box office and reviews in Britain than in America, so it is normal that Ronald has never heard of it.

"Best Actor nominees...Robert Downey Jr., Charlie Chaplin, Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman, Clint Eastwood, Unforgiven, Denzel Washington, Malcolm X, Stephen Leigh, The Crying Game."

It was another nomination for The Crying Game. Ronald could no longer stay still. He asked the staff behind him to find some information to look at. It turned out to be a story about the background of the Irish Republican Army. Now he had some memory.

"Best Actress nominees...Emma Thompson, Just Ask Me, Catherine Deneuve, Michelle Pfeiffer, Susan Sarandon..."

Ronald borrowed a pencil and wrote down the names of The Crying Game and Love Is War on a piece of paper. His favorites, Tom Cruise and Whitney Houston, were not nominated.

"And the nominees for Best Film are..."

Diane and Remi read the nominations as fast as lightning, without any pause. Before Ronald knew it, it was already the Best Picture. The Crying Game, Love Is War, Unforgiven, and Scent of a Woman were all nominated. Fortunately, A Few Good People also managed to get a nomination.

Then, for Best Director, Robert Reiner, the director of A Few Good Men, was not nominated. Neil Jordan of The Crying Game and James Avery of The Love Awakens were also nominated.

Diane would no longer announce the list of small prizes. After she came down, she was also very surprised. Looking at Ronald's expressionless face, she knew that he must be a little unhappy, so she took the initiative to hold his arm.

"It's okay, just a little unexpected..." Ronald was still remembering the nominations for the technical awards. The Bodyguard received two nominations for Best Original Song, but the best-selling song "I Will Always Love You" was not nominated because it was a cover.

Bram Stoker's Dracula also received well-deserved nominations for Best Sound, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup, but it was completely wiped out in the Performance category.

"Any hints?" Ronald asked in a low voice, taking advantage of his position. He had just stepped down and handed the stage to the other guests, the new president Remi.

"Old man, Ronald..." Remi was still the same. He just said a few words and went to greet other guests.

……

"What happened?" Ronald returned home and called the team responsible for award public relations and marketing consultant Michael Gray to his home for an emergency meeting to discuss the reasons for the failure of the nomination battle.

Since I was busy with other things, I handed this aspect over to the company's team. I didn't expect that I would be ambushed by someone else. Although it was not a disastrous failure like Waterloo, it was obvious that several of the films I promoted did not get nominated for the awards I wanted.

Especially Reiner, Costner, and Coppola, these are all people in the director camp that he can win over. It will be very important for him to win a director award in the future.

These people are all well-known commercial film directors in Hollywood. If they cannot give them more nomination guarantees, they will most likely be pulled away by other studios, especially those two movies that came out of nowhere. The people in charge of public relations behind them have lost the title of Oscar-winning wizard that they had kept for less than a year.

"The Crying Game was produced by Channel 4 of Britain and Japanese Screen Productions... This Love Is All Right, and it was also produced by Channel 4 of Britain and Japanese Satellite Channel..."

Michelle Cannold, who had just watched the live broadcast of the nominations at home, jumped into her car and drove to Ronald's house, holding a copy of last year's film industry yearbook.

He had already checked the financing and production companies of the two films in the car, and it was clear that there were similarities, as both were British themes.

Based on his experience, he estimated that the British Channel 4 was listed as the producer, and then it obtained the pre-sale theater distribution contract in Britain, and then went to Japan to persuade investors of small and medium-sized TV stations to put up money. Finally, relying on the distribution contract for the film, it went to the Netherlands, Belgium and other countries to find banks for bridge loans.

The production process is very complicated, so it is impossible for a large studio to do it. It could only be a small independent studio that is familiar with the European film trading market and has connections in Japan. They joined together and made the film through a complex contract structure.

But these two films, somehow, managed to achieve the same results that even the joint PR efforts of the big studios and I could not achieve. The videotape formula I invented last year was clearly defeated in the competition with them.

"So who is it?" Ronald instructed them to intensify their investigation and find out the production company behind the scenes.

"Also, what did Remi and I mean by elderly people? I guess it means that these two films have found a way to more effectively recruit the elderly judges of the PR Academy?"

"It's very possible, but I really haven't heard anything..." Michael Gray touched his head. Even if there were some new strategies for winning the prize, it was impossible for him to not hear any news at all, right? Did he miss some insignificant information?