Made in Hollywood

"Honey, we don't have an award for our movie, who should we vote for?"

In the living room of the villa, Ivanka looked up and looked here, Duke put down the newspaper in his hand, and said very irresponsibly, "You have made a decision."

"But I haven't seen the nominated movies." Ivanka couldn't help scratching her face.

She scribbled over the ballots with a pen, and she was obviously very interested in replacing Duke with the right to vote for the Oscars.

Duke picked up a glass of water, walked over and handed it to Ivanka, "Drink first, you haven't had any water since last night."

"I'm going back to New York tomorrow for a promotion, and dehydration makes me look thinner..."

Having said that, Ivanka saw Duke's persistent eyes, so she had to take the water glass, "Okay, I give up the dehydration weight loss plan."

She blinked quickly and deliberately pushed the ballot in front of Duke, "How do we choose?"

While Duke was watching the ballots, Ivanka quickly picked up the water glass, took a very small sip, and put the glass back on the coffee table.

"I don't know who to choose." Duke shrugged, "I haven't seen any movies that have nothing to do with us."

In fact, he is also one of the kind of judges who are not very responsible. For most of the nominated films, except for a few films that he had watched in his previous life, he had no idea of ​​watching them at all.

People like Duke make up quite a few of the 6,000 Oscar judges.

A long time ago, Duke became an Oscar judge, which is one of the nearly 6,000 members of the Academy. According to the regulations of the Film Academy, the members of the Academy are mainly generated in two ways. One is by being invited by the Academy. One is to get an Oscar nomination automatically.

Duke belongs to the second category.

He has been very busy all these years. The so-called performance of the jury's responsibilities is just a form. In most cases, it is similar to this award, which has no interest in himself. Choose to vote with your feet, or to see which name is familiar and pleasing to the eye, and vote for the other party.

Not only Duke, this is a very common voting method among many Oscar judges, and public relations and media promotion have the greatest influence on the choices of these people.

The last voting for this year's Oscars starts from the announcement of the nominations on February 14 and ends on February 25 before the awards ceremony. After the judges' tickets are mailed back to the Academy, they will be counted by two accountants from PricewaterhouseCoopers. The number of votes will be counted, and the names of the winners will be sealed. These envelopes are full of suspense and expectations, and they will have to wait until the Oscars live broadcast. They will be opened one by one.

Oscar voting has undergone many reforms over the course of history. Every Oscar in recent years has gone through two rounds of voting. All members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, basically affiliated with one of the 14 branches of the Academy, such as actors, directors, screenwriters and photographers, will cast a total of two votes, the first to select the finalists, and the second A winner will be selected.

in the first round of voting. The judges' votes are limited to candidates from their own branches. For example, Duke can only vote for the director category, and after the shortlist is announced, all nearly 6,000 members can vote for other categories.

Before the Academy expanded its Best Picture Oscar nominations to ten, the new sort-of-choice voting system wasn't born. The voting method is still the typical "single-wheel-type voting system with the highest number of votes".

Of course, no matter what the voting system is, the favor points generated by public relations, lobbying and other methods will occupy a considerable share, and even determine the attribution of awards.

Members like Duke and his team, who are basically members of the academy, participated in the work of nominated films, or their friends participated, how should they vote? I believe this is not difficult to guess.

In most cases, a person has preferences, and preferences are affected by the surrounding environment.

Ivanka took five minutes to get the votes for awards unrelated to "The Return of the King". Duke sealed the ballots in an envelope and handed them over to the housekeeper Emma, ​​so she could mail them out in time, which belonged to Duke's Oscar voting trip , this is the end.

As the Oscars ceremony approaches, more and more members of the Academy have also completed the voting work at hand.

Howard Rodman is the vice president of the Writers Guild. He has a pivotal influence in this organization that represents the rights and interests of Hollywood screenwriters. Facing a few of his friends, he did not shy away from talking about his voting choices. .

"I'll only vote for the category that I've seen all the relevant movies for," he said. As a busy person, what he can watch seriously is often the most influential film of the year, not to mention that the film has done all the work against him, "I will vote for "The Return of the King". "

His votes have been mailed out, but after get off work in the evening, many of Howard Rodman's friends and subordinates also cast their votes for "The Return of the King".

Tony Angelotti, a public relations specialist who has overseen and directed promotional campaigns for over 250 films, has been a member of the Academy since 1975.

"Dad, how did you choose to vote?" in the study, his son Tony asked curiously.

Facing the question from his son who was less than ten years old, Tony Angelotti couldn't help laughing, "My dear, it is a very time-consuming thing to watch all the nominated films, because some types, such as visual Effect, there were only three finalists before, but they have now increased to five, so it is becoming more and more difficult to see all the films.”

"So..." He raised his left hand, covered his eyes, and held a pen in his right a foot or so above the ballot. "I make choices this way."

After he finished speaking, he let go of his right hand, and the pen fell on the ballot paper, leaving a black dot on the name of one of the films.

Tony Angelotti took off his left hand, picked up the pen, and for this award, chose that movie.

"Dad, do it again!" Little Tony shouted excitedly.

So, Tony Angelotti covered his eyes again...

Peter Bart, a contributing editor of Variety magazine, came home from a day's work. With his wife's reminder, he remembered that the Oscar voting deadline was approaching.

Entering the study, he took out the envelope mailed by the college, Peter Bart took out the ballot paper, and his wife followed, standing by and looking at the nominated movies and the names of the people.

"Honey, you haven't seen these movies yet."

Hearing his wife's words, Peter Bart shook his head indifferently, "I have read the comments and communicated with other people. So, even if I haven't read everything, I know what choices to make."

When it comes to the scale and power of the reviews, no other film can match Return of the King, and all the people around Peter Bart are talking about are talking about it almost all he hears news, so he chose "The Return of the King" without hesitation.

On February 25th, the deadline for college voting, although the final results will not be known until the awards ceremony on the 29th, Penny Kelly, who is in charge of public relations for Duke, is quite confident.

"According to the feedback." She remained calm, "Duke, your odds of winning are close to 80%, and "The Return of the King" can guarantee seven to nine awards."

Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, Duke withdrew his gaze from the sea, "This is already very good."

No one can guarantee a 100% award, and "The Return of the King" requires not only various jobs, but also a little luck to achieve what he thinks.

Luck is something you can't see or touch, but sometimes it's quite important when all the work is done in place.

For example, some judges who are used to voting with their feet are often unsure of where their feet will fall.

"How's your preparation going?"

As the last person to serve before retiring, Panney Kelly has benefited enormously from Duke, and has also devoted all her energy. She is now serving Duke alone.

Ivanka took over, "The dress is ready, we're just waiting for the awards ceremony to start."

Penny Kelly nodded, then asked Duke, "What about the acceptance speech I prepared for you?"

"Don't worry, Penny." Duke raised his finger to his forehead, "I've kept it in mind."

Although he is not an actor with excellent acting skills, according to the plan of the publicist, it is not too difficult to give a splendid performance after winning the award.

On the Oscar stage, you can always see the winners’ speeches that are excited or moved, but more than 80% of them are performing, especially the heaviest awards. People will definitely be excited after winning them, but Those actors' exaggerated expressions, movements and words, perhaps only they themselves know, how long it took to practice in private.

On the Oscar stage, which is watched all over the United States and even the world, it is not possible to say and do anything casually. The acceptance speech is never from the hands of the winners themselves. A seemingly ordinary acceptance speech must be done in advance. All will be formulated and reviewed by their respective PRs and brokers.

Many celebrities, who are evasive and rude, if they say something wrong at the Oscars, it may even affect their future prospects.

For example, views on issues such as war and homosexuality...

Duke's acceptance speech came from the hands of him, Panney Kelly and Nancy Josephson, from individual awards to group awards, and even subdivided into which award, which time period, and what to say .

Public relations has always been an esoteric subject, and acceptance speeches are, in some respects, a form of public relations.

In short, Duke is ready, just waiting for the 76th Academy Awards to kick off. (To be continued..)

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