Chapter Seventy-Nine: Four Consecutive Sittings
Although the North American market in March has seen all kinds of turbulent events one after another, for Hollywood, there is always only one thing that is most important in this schedule - the Oscars!
The Oscars, which have been scheduled for the 24th of this month, have also moved to their "new home" - the Kodak Theater. In addition, the Academy also announced that the Oscars will be held here for the next 100 years, and the Kodak Theater, together with the Chinese Theater next door, has become another landmark building on the Walk of Fame.
This year's Oscars can also be regarded as full of highlights, whether it is "A Beautiful Mind", which is shortlisted for Best Picture for the third time by DreamWorks, or "Begin Again", which is shortlisted again by Fire Lion Pictures, it is a clear proof of the "counterattack" of small and medium-sized studios.
And the representative of the seven major film companies, Fox also brought his own "Moulin Rouge", symbolizing the official return of song and dance films to the big stage of Hollywood.
Although, there are also some fanatical fans, the starting point of this new millennium song and dance film retro fever, starting from Sid's "Song and Dance Youth".
But the public and professional media only regard this view as a kind of love house and black house for avid fans, but at this year's Oscars, Sid's other musical film "Begin Again" is indeed more champion than "Moulin Rouge".
In addition to live-action films, last year, as a big year for animation, DreamWorks' "Shrek", Blue Sky Studios' "Madagascar" and Pixar's "Monsters, Inc." were all nominated for this year's Best Animation Award.
This made this award, which had no suspense in the past, also have a huge controversy and topic.
In addition, such as Sid's Nth nomination for Best Director and Best Film, Russell Crowe's second shortlist this year after winning the Oscar, the possibility of winning the award again, etc., have all become hot topics among the public, media and stars during the awards season.
In addition, the host of this year's Oscars, the academy also brought back the old buddy Whoopi Goldberg, a well-known black comedy actress, although her value is declining after the new millennium.
But her excellent hosting skills and humorous rhetoric still make her the best person to move between entertainment and current affairs with ease.
Of course, after a super event like 911, inviting a representative black actress to be the host of the Oscars is also an effective way to demonstrate national unity.
It's just that in Sid's opinion, "Since you want to find black stars to earn solidarity votes, wouldn't it be better to invite Oprah directly?"
Although Oprah's status as a unique talk show queen in North America, and even in Europe and the United States is undoubted, she has never hosted a heavyweight award such as the Oscar.
If this breakthrough can be achieved this time, it will really create a new legend.
But this is just Sid's "wishful thinking" after all, although the Fire Lion is developing rapidly, it is obviously too early to make an impact on the Oscar Academy.
Although Sid was "blatantly" absent during the awards season, and "The Departed", which had just started filming, was inseparable from Sid's training.
But on Oscar day, Sid still showed up at the Kodak Theater on time, or to be precise, a few days earlier, he rushed back to Los Angeles in advance to make relevant preparations.
Although with the Fire Lion becoming bigger and stronger, Sid, the big boss of "throwing hands", does not use too much grass, but it still takes a few days to try on dresses and match female companions.
Skipping the red carpet show, the Kodak Theatre was filled with guests as if they had traveled to an ancient temple of glory under the glowing ring lights.
With the music of the live symphony band, the guests immediately began to burst into warm applause, and with the long applause, the 74th Oscars also officially kicked off.
Sid couldn't help but find an interesting thing, in this era, the attention of the Oscars is still quite high, whether it is the general public, or the stars from all walks of life who are really involved, their attention to the Oscars is absolutely unimaginable to outsiders.
Although this year's popular director Ron Howard is bald, now he is officially in his spring breeze, facing the photographer who squatted in front of him, he couldn't help but smile and the folds on his face narrowed.
Since then, Robert Altman, the veteran British director who directed "Gosford Manor", Peter Jackson, the "super newcomer" of "The Lord of the Rings 1", and Sid Leonhardt of "Begin Again", all appeared in front of the camera.
Compared with the white-haired and flowery old directors in front of him, or the old director with a sloppy beard, the young, sunny, calm and handsome Sid is like a standing out from the crowd, which is quite "eye-catching".
If you count "Little Sunshine Beauty", then Sid has been successfully shortlisted for the Oscar for the fourth consecutive year with his own works.
As a young man who has just turned 21 years old, this is already an amazing record that has never been seen before at the Oscars.
Four years ago, Sid made a stunning Oscar appearance with "Black Hole", "Curfew" and "Little Sunshine Beauty", winning two statuettes in one fell swoop, achieving an unprecedented achievement.
In the eyes of many people at the time, this kind of overly astonishing achievement was generally not sustainable.
Just like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck before, although they starred in many excellent works as actors after "Soul Catcher", as actors, like Ben Affleck last year even starred in an A-grade commercial blockbuster like "Pearl Harbor".
Although the film hit the street in the end, being able to become the leading actor of an A-level commercial blockbuster in such a short period of time at such a young age and debuting can already show the excellence of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
But even these two former "golden boys" who are thriving in the past want to return to the Oscar stage, it is still too reluctant, or impossible.
But Sid not only stayed on the Oscar stage after "Little Sunshine Beauty", but also took root one year a year and unswervingly.
From "Little Sunshine Beauty" to "Earth Thunder", from "Juno" to "Begin Again", Sid used his superb directing skills and skills to hit the heartstrings of thousands of Oscar judges again and again, which in itself seems incredible.
When seeing Sid's young face, on the same stage with other old, scruffy directors, many people can't help but feel unreal.