Chapter 774: The Types Oscar Likes

While this was a market that highly valued copyright, many people's awareness wasn't as strong as rumored—including some judges of the School. Past piracy leaks of Oscar films were always tied to the judges' lax copyright awareness. In Duke's view, this time would probably be no exception.

Most typically, Oscar judges weren't loners; they had family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues. If these people saw the relevant DVDs lying around their homes and asked to borrow them, he believed many wouldn't refuse.

They didn't understand that their behavior was actually "theft." They would lend a DVD to a neighbor, and then the neighbor's kids might upload it to the internet...

Once the DVD left their hands, they had no idea what would happen next.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was, after all, a relatively loose system, not a strict organization like the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Central Intelligence Agency.

It was no exaggeration to say that every awards season, the files for the most highly anticipated films would leak early. By the time many movies began their limited releases in North America in mid-to-late December, DVD screener versions were already flying all over the internet.

Although a significant portion of the industry didn't believe that someone who watched pirated movies was ever going to buy a ticket—those looking for bootlegs likely wouldn't have spent money anyway—it was an indisputable fact that this still impacted a film's actual revenue.

This phenomenon had been occurring for years, but neither the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nor the MPAA could come up with a good solution.

"In fact, there really is no good way to solve it..."

In the moving car, Duke discussed the matter with Scarlett, who sat next to him.

"Unless we can get most of the School's judges to walk into the theaters on their own initiative," he added.

Scarlett curled her lips.

"But that's obviously impossible."

Getting the School's judges to cast their votes responsibly was too difficult. Let alone Duke and Scarlett, even the School's executive committee understood that this was simply impossible.

Just like Duke, when mailing the DVD screener versions of Gravity, he also held two large-scale film breakdown sessions. He invited many of the School's judges, but a significant number still failed to show up. Putting aside other factors, age alone was a difficult problem to solve. After all, some judges were simply too old; no one could expect them to expend so much time and energy participating in such an event.

"Right. I just saw some news in the paper."

As if thinking of something, Scarlett reminded Duke.

"Recently, a lot of media outlets have been hyping up the news of Natalie Portman's pregnancy." She marveled, "She really is too smart!"

Duke gently patted Scarlett's hand.

"Smart people don't necessarily get the last laugh."

News of Natalie Portman's pregnancy had reached him a long time ago. Duke also recalled the Natalie Portman who had once stepped onto the Oscar stage to lift the Best Actress Golden Statuette. Back then, he had simply been happy that a movie star he liked had won the Oscar Best Actress, completely unaware that behind the pregnancy, there might have been a meticulous public relations plan.

Even now, Duke had to sigh. This was definitely a trump card for the Oscars.

Frankly, the movie Black Swan and Natalie Portman's role as a schizophrenic were both excellent, particularly aligning with the School's mainstream aesthetics. Coupled with the inevitable bonus points brought by a pregnant woman, Duke felt that Natalie Portman really should be the top favorite for Best Actress at this year's Oscars.

But the top favorite wouldn't necessarily win the award. There were simply too many factors affecting the final Oscar voting.

However, Duke still admired Natalie Portman. She was incredibly good at utilizing her mind, her status, and every situation she could exploit.

As the car drove into the Beverly Hills area, Duke reminded Scarlett.

"We're almost there."

Scarlett pulled down the vanity mirror on the car roof to see if she needed to touch up her makeup.

The two of them were preparing to attend a film breakdown session. This one had nothing to do with Gravity; rather, it was a session hosted by the Weinstein Brothers for The King's Speech. News regarding the film had been bubbling up recently, with endless reports about internet piracy. In fact, it wasn't hard for someone like Duke to see that Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein, upon discovering the piracy, obviously wanted to use it to build momentum for the film.

The negative impact brought by internet piracy couldn't be completely eliminated. Using these industry-focused news stories to hype The King's Speech, thereby raising the film's profile and further attracting the attention of the judges, was a very smart promotional tactic.

Duke had come at Harvey Weinstein's invitation. Since he was joining the Oscar game this year, the other party naturally wanted to test the waters in certain areas. Although Duke's relationship with the core judges of the School could only be considered average, he was now the representative figure of a major faction in Hollywood, and no one could ignore his weight.

Before the film breakdown session began, Duke exchanged a few words with the Weinstein Brothers. Now was not the time for a deep discussion. The brothers' intent to probe was obvious, and some things were not hard to guess: Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein wanted to see exactly which awards Duke was preparing to contest. These brothers of Jewish descent were absolutely well-informed figures in Hollywood. They knew that Duke himself didn't have much interest in the Oscars; if they could reach an agreement in certain areas, it would benefit both sides.

Having agreed to speak with the Weinstein Brothers in detail after the film breakdown session, Duke took Scarlett's arm and walked into the screening room specially prepared by the hotel to watch The King's Speech.

In the recent Oscar submissions, Warner Brothers had submitted three films for Best Picture: Inception, Gravity, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Judging solely by subject matter and content, The King's Speech clearly possessed more of the aura of a Best Picture.

The Oscars' preference for inspirational films was no secret. The subject matter of The King's Speech destined it to be welcomed by the Oscars. Movies about serious subjects regarding the British royal family often garnered good reputations and the favor of various awards; from Elizabeth to The Queen, this was always the case. Even Elizabeth: The Golden Age, which had a very poor reputation, managed to snag a Best Costume Design award at the Oscars to keep up appearances.

Furthermore, the production quality of The King's Speech itself was excellent; it was a typical Weinstein Oscar assembly-line work. Coupled with the lingering good impression of The Queen in the hearts of the School's judges, it was very natural for it to become a huge favorite for Best Picture at this year's Oscars.

In some respects, it was a very conventional movie, but conventional movies held more of an advantage during the awards season.

Just as good movies didn't always sell well, good movies equally didn't necessarily win Oscar recognition.

The most typical examples were Forrest Gump and The Shawshank Redemption. Even now, many people still believed that if it weren't for Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption would definitely have been the biggest winner at that year's Oscars.

Without a doubt, The Shawshank Redemption was a good movie, but even without Forrest Gump, it wouldn't have been the winner of that year's Oscars. Even if it were thrown into the year of Shakespeare in Love, The Shawshank Redemption would still only be a supporting player.

A subject like The King's Speech naturally found favor with the Oscars, while the prison theme of The Shawshank Redemption was never the type the School truly liked.

Moreover, there were simply too many factors that could influence the Oscar voting results; sometimes, the weight of the film itself was so light it could be ignored.

For example, in the previous Oscars, James Cameron and Avatar suffered a total defeat at the hands of Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker; it was a typical political victory.

In recent years, the Oscars had been increasingly influenced by politics. Politics had never been far from Hollywood, and The King's Speech was also a typically political film. The protagonist of the movie was the stuttering father of the current master of Buckingham Palace.

Whether it was a public relations stunt or fake news released by the Weinstein Brothers, some media outlets had recently reported that Elizabeth II herself really liked The King's Speech...

"I did send a copy to Buckingham Palace..."

In a lounge, Harvey Weinstein seemingly confessed to Duke.

"It's said that the Queen herself also watched this film and nodded in approval."

Duke knew very well that whether the Queen herself liked the movie wasn't actually important. Elizabeth II was silent most of the time, and the film reflected one of her father's proudest moments; Buckingham Palace would not easily refute this viewpoint publicly.

Duke lightly tapped the armrest of the sofa and spoke to Harvey Weinstein on his left.

"I also think this movie is pretty good."

"Is that so?" Harvey Weinstein revealed a perfectly timed expression of pleasant surprise. "There aren't many films that get your approval."

"Harvey..." Duke couldn't be bothered to beat around the bush and asked directly, "In your planning, which awards is The King's Speech mainly targeting?"

Harvey Weinstein dropped his smile and spoke very seriously, "Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor. These are the three primary awards!"

The fact that he could invite Duke meant he had naturally grasped what Duke wanted. There was no major conflict of interest between the two parties; otherwise, this meeting would be nothing more than a joke.

Duke remained silent. Harvey Weinstein thought for a moment and tentatively probed, "On the internet, the hype for your Inception is very high."

"Oh?" Duke turned his head, slightly raising his eyebrows.

Harvey Weinstein added, "The storytelling in Inception is unparalleled."

"Stop joking around, Harvey." Duke couldn't help but shake his head. "We all know that the Oscars have never been interested in good stories."