This year's Oscar strong films are gathered, and it has been recognized as the year with the strongest comprehensive quality of Oscar entries after 1994~!

In 1994, "Forrest Gump", "The Shawshank Redemption", "Pulp Fiction", and "True Lies" were all star-studded, and the greatest directors and superstars of the 90s gathered at one time, creating an unprecedented movie scene.

In particular, "Forrest Gump" and "The Shawshank Redemption", two duels that are known as eternal classics, have been talked about by fans until now, the former won the crown that year, and the latter is the only work that can compete with "The Godfather" for the first place so far~~

Every year since, people have been asking why this year's Oscar competition has not had such gold content??? Can't enjoy two peerless movie PK?

And this year, people will never ask this question again, because although the 2008 Oscar nominations have not yet been announced, they are already destined to be starry~~

"Life of Pi" and "The Dark Knight", which broke through the global box office of one billion, are full of momentum~~ It is recognized as a movie that can be compared with "Titanic" in terms of art and box office! Whether it is rated on Rotten Tomatoes or IMBA, these two movies are on par with "Forrest Gump", second only to "The Godfather" and "The Shawshank Redemption".

Li Xiaole and Nolan, the two most outstanding genius directors emerging in the 21st century, have met each other, and everyone's appetite has been aroused!

And this year is different from 1994, although "Life of Pi" and "The Dark Knight" swept the global prestige for a while, but in addition to visual and audio effects, these two films may also fail in other awards, of course, not because of their lack of level in actors, directors, and scripts, but because their artistic opponents can be described as strong films!

The night before the nomination, Li Xiaole sat on the sofa with Tom Cruise, Wu Wei, Xu Zhen and other Black Pearl veterans, nervously listening to Lei Ting read various information about the Oscar prediction.

This year is very special, due to the strike of the Writers Guild since November last year, the entire Hollywood major league is in turmoil, labor and management are arguing at the negotiation table, many directors and actors have voluntarily withdrawn from various awards awarded by the major league organizations in support of the strike of the Writers Guild.

Black Pearl is a typical example of this, although "Life of Pi" and "Captain America" have been shortlisted for dozens of large and small awards, but due to their voluntary withdrawal, they did not even attend the Golden Globe Awards, resulting in "Life of Pi" has only won 7 union-level awards so far, which is extremely chilling compared with "Slumdog Millionaire", which won the award and won the soft hand.

And Nolan led the crew of "The Dark Knight" and the crew of Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men" also supported the Writers Guild strike, resulting in the loss of reference value for all the Oscar vane awards in previous years, including the Golden Globe Awards.

This made everyone generally uncertain, and they couldn't sleep for a few nights before the nomination was announced, so they asked Lei Ting, who was in charge of data searching, to tell them about the current Oscar situation.

"You can't watch it in any other media, but the latest rating of the Wall Street Journal's most forward-looking '2008 Oscar Series' is very authoritative, and I've calculated that of all the media, they have always been the most accurate in their predictions." Lei Ting looked at these nervous men and said in a flat tone, she really didn't understand, but it was just an honorary award, what was there to be nervous about.

"Miss Lei, don't sell it, let's talk about it." Tom Cruise urged.

"Don't worry, you'll be disappointed too." Lei Ting sighed softly and said, ""Life of Pi" ranked 5th with a comprehensive score of 92.2 points......"

"Only fifth?" Li Xiaole couldn't help frowning when he heard this, and asked with some displeasure, "What did they say?" ”

"The evaluation of this film given in the article is as follows: 'There is great hope in terms of film music, film special effects, and best adapted screenplay, and it is also the most powerful contender for best picture and best director, but there are too many opponents, and it is difficult to win the award.'" Lei Ting picked up the laptop and finished reading, and comforted:

"Don't be discouraged, foreign directors have never been treated well by Hollywood, you look at Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight" is only ranked fourth, and the score is almost the same as you~~ It seems that the 'lobbying' strength of the Big Six is really very strong."

The judging of the Oscars does not rely entirely on the strength of the film itself as the outside world imagines, it is a circle award, based on an award in the entire Hollywood circle, and the 6,000 judges are all people in the Hollywood circle.

"Best Director" is evaluated by members of the Directors Guild, "Best Screenwriter" is evaluated by members of the Writers Guild, "Best Actor" is evaluated by members of the Actors Guild, as well as the Photography Guild, etc., individual awards are voted by each union, and the Best Film Award is voted for by 6,000 people.

And every time on the eve of the "Oscar" nomination, major companies will carry out "lobbying" review activities, which is not insider trading, it is legal in the United States, there is a special lobbying law, and it must not involve monetary transactions.

There are only two ways to "lobby", one is to spend money.

According to the "lobbying law", the object of a lobbying cannot exceed two people, the Oscar organizing committee has a special theater that reflects the selected films, let the judges go to see, there are 1012 seats in that place, and among the 6000 judges, a maximum of two people are lobbied at a time, and invite them to watch the movie.

It's $2,000 for such a screening, and $1,000,000 for lobbying 1,000 judges, and of course you have to spend that money, because every film that is selected is done.

Another way of "lobbying" is the influence of the circle - "popularity lobbying".

For example, Fox once invited Julia Roberts, who is very popular in the circle, to do "lobbying", and Julia Roberts invited a group of directors and actors to his home to watch a certain movie and canvass for votes, and then the film really won the award he wanted.

This kind of "popularity lobbying" is purely based on the accumulated strength of major companies, such as the acquisition of DreamWorks, Miramax's Paramount, they can send Spielberg, Tom Hanks and other directors to lobby activities, plus Wayne Stein, a famous power person in the circle, infiltrates their "lobbying" in other aspects, and the strength is the strongest. (Wayne Stein, the notorious fat man's lobbying strength, is really super strong, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "The King's Speech", and "No Country for Old Men" are all his lobbying results),

The other companies in the Big Six are similar, and they are weaker than Warner, the leading boss, not to mention Black Pearl, and their lobbying strength is not worth mentioning.

Although the existence of the "lobbying" system cannot subvert the entire selection, and it is impossible for bad films to win the Oscar, it will play a very huge role when the films of equal strength are voted on, and this is the case this year.

"How's The Dark Knight's review?" Li Xiaole is interested in the most reluctant comments, which is the real Hollywood circle's point of view.

They said that The Dark Knight was undoubtedly the favourite for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Cinematography...... And Heath Ledger's 'Joker' seems to be the best supporting actor~ The pen "Life of Pi" is still much better. After Lei Ting finished reading, she simply handed the laptop to Li Xiaole and them:

"Let's see for yourselves~"

Everyone is a little helpless, in fact, the comprehensive score of 92 points will definitely be the biggest hit of the year's NO·1 for previous years, but this time such two billion-dollar box office movies can only be relegated to the top three, everyone looked at the top three, and the "2008 Oscar Front" gave these three films a score of more than 94 points.

In the three movies with more than 94 points, they are "Slumdog Millionaire", "Rejuvenation", and "No Country for Old Men", for these three movies, the report uses the same conclusion:

"It wouldn't surprise us if any of their films were nominated for 10 awards, these three films alone would be the biggest Oscar favorites in any year, and who would have thought that God would release all three films at the same time as 'Life of Pi' and 'The Dark Knight'?"

Traditionally, reviews of these three films were written not by the editors of the Wall Street Journal but by the presidents of the top three theater chains in the United States, as part of a "lobbying" offensive.

Andy Jones, president of the Royal Entertainment Group, which has 549 theaters and 6,782 screens, is full of praise for Sony's "Slumdog Millionaire":

"This is about the painful fate of a man, and the director of "Trainspotting" is the British Danny Boyle, who is very good at scavenging pain under the garb of absurdity and brilliant colors. Even if it is not as whimsical as in "Life of Pi", "Slumdog Millionaire" is a rare and thrilling way to make life in pain.

Compared to Life of Pi, Slumdog Millionaire's understanding of pain is even more unexpected: a child who grew up in the slums of Mumbai, India, has experienced life by mistake because of all kinds of painful and even dirty experiences, and finally won the grand prize of 20 million rupees in a TV quiz show. This young Indian Gemma has experienced unimaginable pain, unexpectedly walked through a dark journey that many people have never experienced, and in the end, these unbearable past events made him answer tricky questions that ordinary people can't answer.