Chapter 787: The Wind Quietly Shifts

Judging by the progression of the ceremony, this year's Golden Globe Awards felt more like a showdown between The Social Network and The King's Speech. The atmosphere of a duel was palpable. Yet, in stark contrast to the Oscar results in Duke's memory, The Social Network emerged as the biggest winner of the Golden Globes.

The Social Network took home two heavyweight awards: Best Picture (Drama) and Best Director. The King's Speech only managed to secure a Best Actor (Drama) win through Colin Firth.

This outcome also showed that the Golden Globe Awards had little influence on the Oscars.

Natalie Portman, Duke's primary competitor in this regard, took home Best Actress (Drama). Across all the precursor awards leading up to this point, Natalie Portman had practically achieved a clean sweep in the Best Actress category.

However, Duke wasn't anxious. Due to its release schedule, Gravity had missed out on nominations for nearly all of these awards; winning was naturally out of the question.

Following the Golden Globe Awards ceremony, the scramble during the awards season among various Hollywood companies and studios grew even fiercer. Although David Fincher hadn't attended any promotional or public relations events, Sony Columbia Pictures—the production and distribution company behind The Social Network—displayed a determination to secure several heavyweight awards, significantly ramping up their PR and promotional efforts.

Perhaps Sony Columbia Pictures made Weinstein Pictures feel threatened. Harvey Weinstein and Bob Weinstein once again resorted to a lethal tactic: hiring professional "paid online shills" to smear The Social Network all over town.

The Social Network unfortunately became yet another victim of Harvey Weinstein's bottomless PR strategies.

At this critical moment in the Oscar campaign, negative reviews of The Social Network came flooding in. First, various individuals related to "Facebook" stepped forward to accuse the film of fabricating facts and tarnishing images. Next, the original novel that served as the film's foundation was engulfed in a plagiarism scandal. Moreover, David Fincher, the director of The Social Network, remained entirely uninterested in promoting the work, treating the Oscars with complete indifference.

On the other hand, Harvey Weinstein crafted a sophisticated, high-end image for The King's Speech. The director, cast, and crew cooperated unconditionally with all the promotional events Weinstein arranged.

In fact, compared to The Social Network—which told the story of internet entrepreneurs at a breakneck pace—the values presented in The King's Speech found much easier favor among the older white male members who made up the vast majority of the School.

Meanwhile, the PR and promotional efforts on Duke's end never relaxed. Events capable of directly influencing the judges' choices—such as private screenings, internal pitch meetings, and celebrity charity galas—were held one after another.

At the end of January, on the eve of the Oscar nominations announcement, several major Hollywood guild awards—which could genuinely influence the Oscars and, to some extent, reflect their final outcomes—announced their results.

Unlike the Golden Globe Awards, which bustled like a massive party, the guild awards didn't hold dedicated ceremonies; they simply released their results to the media.

The results caught many people off guard. In the most heavily weighted categories—the Screen Actors Guild, the Directors Guild, and the Producers Alliance awards—the popular films Black Swan and The Social Network walked away empty-handed.

Gravity, which had previously been isolated from the awards season, became one of the biggest winners. Scarlett Johansson won Best Actress at the Screen Actors Guild for her leading role. Duke secured the Directors Guild Award, while Weinstein Pictures' The King's Speech took home Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild and Best Picture from the Producers Alliance!

These two films carved up the four most significant categories of the guild awards!

This was especially true for Best Actress and Best Director, categories where the entire awards season had been marching to the rhythm of Natalie Portman and David Fincher winning...

The winds of the Oscars had quietly shifted.

White clouds drifted across the azure sky, and golden sunlight spilled through the gaps, scattering over the green lawn. It illuminated a small white ball, making it shine brightly. Duke stood before the ball and gently swung his putter. The white golf ball rolled across the uneven ground and dropped flawlessly into the hole.

"Birdie!"

A middle-aged man's voice rang out from behind.

Duke handed his club to the caddy, took off his sun hat, and walked over, saying with a smile, "Just good luck."

A massive patio umbrella stood prominently on the lawn.

Harvey Weinstein sat in a chair beneath it. "Skill is the foundation of luck," he said to Duke as he sipped his coffee.

Hearing this double entendre, Duke didn't say anything. He merely smiled, shook his head, and sat in the other chair next to Harvey Weinstein.

Harvey Weinstein set down his coffee cup and waved toward the green. He waited until the caddies were far away before speaking. "Duke, it's a good thing you aren't very interested in the Oscars. Otherwise, I'd have a fierce competitor on my hands."

"Rest assured, Harvey," Duke said at an unhurried pace, pouring himself a cup of coffee. "My interests and goals are solely in commercial films."

He paused briefly before continuing, "Besides, some of my tactics this time have already pushed the School's limits. Using these methods once is fine, but if I used them every year, I'm sure the School wouldn't just sit back and watch."

Duke had always been someone who understood boundaries. He wasn't foolish enough to think that just because he had the capability, the Oscars would become his personal playground.

"The entire operation of Weinstein Pictures revolves around the Oscars..." Harvey Weinstein made no secret of this, stating quite directly, "I don't want to be your competitor, either."

"We won't be competitors," Duke said, lifting his coffee cup and taking a slow sip. "And your competitor won't be me, either."

In truth, most people in Hollywood were well aware that, just as Harvey Weinstein had said, many of Weinstein Pictures' operational strategies were formulated specifically around the Oscars. This was a major reason why the Weinstein Brothers were consistently able to triumph at the Oscars.

By the same logic, let alone top-tier studios like Warner Brothers or Twentieth Century Fox, if second-tier companies like New Line Pictures or Lionsgate Pictures operated with strategies identical to Weinstein Pictures, their achievements at the Oscars wouldn't necessarily be much worse than Harvey Weinstein's.

Furthermore, Duke knew very well that any individual or company could only influence the Oscars; they could never control them. The Weinstein Brothers were no exception.

In fact, from certain perspectives, the Weinstein Brothers' Oscar crisis had already begun to surface.

In recent years, the films pushed by Weinstein Pictures hadn't differed much from their past award-winning titles. The King's Speech remained an assembly-line product born of Weinstein's usual "formula for Oscar success," no different from previous films like The Iron Lady.

A combination of "biopic + massive personality flaw + workaholic + historical event," paired with an actor's slightly neurotic signature performance, resulted in a standard "Oscar-bait genre film." This had been the Weinstein Brothers' habitual production and promotional model for years of running their Oscar campaign.

Without a doubt, in recent years and even before that, this assembly-line model was one of the safest ways to mount an Oscar campaign.

However, society was changing, and the entire entertainment industry was changing right along with it.

With the rise of cable television, Netflix, online media, Amazon, and a slew of other new platforms and producers, the core focus of the term "entertainment industry" was drifting further from "entertainment" and leaning heavily toward "industry."

The film sector faced unprecedented competition. Hollywood's pressure for box office returns had vastly overshadowed the demand for film quality. Genre films and massive big-budget sequels became foolproof magic weapons for guaranteeing box office success. Major film giants like Warner Brothers, Fox, and Universal Pictures controlled the market for "money-printing machines"—superhero blockbusters and young-adult sci-fi films. This forced other small to mid-sized studios to put their efforts into content and genre to attract specific audiences, risking a little to win big.

Consequently, the School—which had always stood apart from the crowd—became even more conservative and niche.

To demonstrate that it was the "Oscars" and not the "People's Choice Awards," the School-controlled Oscar awards would inevitably favor low-budget, non-profit art house films.

Precisely because of this, low-budget independent films would enjoy unprecedented popularity at the Oscars in the future. Meanwhile, Weinstein's "Oscar-nominated" works were essentially assembly-line products; they were bound to be discarded by an increasingly conservative School. They would encounter challenges from opponents with wildly distinct characteristics, making previously safe choices look mediocre in comparison.

There was also Weinstein Pictures' control over directors and actors. The Weinstein Brothers consistently demanded their unconditional cooperation in PR efforts. For example, Judi Dench, who played "M," had once tattooed Harvey Weinstein's name on her buttocks as a sign of gratitude. Furthermore, even on the red carpet, as long as Weinstein requested it, she would pull down her pants to let him see her rear just to grab some publicity.

Such absolute control naturally had its pros and cons. Cooperative actors might win the trophies they had always dreamed of. On the other hand, uncooperative actors and directors would choose to distance themselves. In an era where individuality was becoming more and more pronounced, the number of directors and actors willing to cooperate to such an extent would only dwindle. The Weinstein Brothers' Oscar campaign strategies would also incur the disgust of many.

Although the Weinstein Brothers and Weinstein Pictures would still be hot contenders in Oscar campaigns in the future, the idea of them harvesting Oscar Golden Statuettes with effortless success as they had for the past dozen years was virtually impossible.

Overly controlling people's hearts would inevitably lead to losing them.

Especially in recent years, "the Weinstein Brothers control the Oscars" had gradually become a prevailing narrative circulating in the media. Such remarks would make many Oscar judges—who weren't lacking in wealth and valued their reputations—cherish their standing even more. They would become increasingly cautious toward films produced by Weinstein Pictures.