At the end of the world premiere of "Wu Ji", the time stepped into December 13, from December 13 to December 15, the collision between "Red Cliff" and "Wu Ji", the collision between "Red Cliff" and "King Kong", there was only 2 days in between, although many people are looking forward to the early arrival of this day, but like the media, film critics can't help but shift their attention to the United States, eagerly waiting for the results, Because December 13 is the day when the nominees for the 63rd Golden Globe Awards and the 11th Critics' Choice Awards hosted by the American Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA) were announced.

When it comes to the Golden Globe Awards, many people who pay attention to Hollywood in China may know this award, but the Critics' Choice Award is not necessarily clear, but in the United States, it is an important award comparable to the Golden Globe Awards.

Every year from December to February, dozens of film awards are awarded in North America, forming the so-called awards season, and the end of the awards season is the world-renowned Academy Awards, and all the previous awards are equivalent to a long foreplay.

Because the Academy Awards are so dazzling, almost every award during this period will be forced or actively related to it. It's just that not every one of these dozens of awards is worthy of being called the bellwether of the Academy Awards.

At present, there are only three awards that are truly called weather vanes: the Screen Actors Guild Award, the American Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, and the Golden Globe Award.

Among the three, although the Actors/Guild Awards have not been established for a long time, because the shortlisted works will be voted for by all members, and these members have many members in the Academy of the Oscars, so the nominations and winners of the Screen Actors Guild every year have a very important preview meaning compared to the subsequent Academy Awards.

The Critics' Choice Awards, sponsored by the American Broadcast Film Critics Association, have long been considered the bellwether of the Oscars. A case in point is the six films that have won the Critics' Choice Award for Best Picture in the past six years. Five of them went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

The Golden Globes are in addition to the Academy Awards. The most well-known awards in the awards season have a great influence on the world, and unlike the first two, the latter is one of the most important awards recognized worldwide.

The announcement of the nominations for such two heavyweight awards has naturally attracted the attention of countless media, film critics, and showbiz people, not to mention that due to the rave reviews of Li Yu's "Brokeback Mountain", domestic media reporters have long been full of expectations, but no one expected that the two major awards would bring such a big surprise, so when the list of nominees was announced. It caused a great shock in an instant, and then quickly swept through major newspapers, magazines, and online entertainment.

In the early morning of December 13, in Beverly Hills, USA, the nominations for the 63rd Golden Globe Awards were announced. Burke, actress Kate. Beckinsale, actor Mark. Wahlberg, Steve. Together, Carell announced the shortlist. The feature film "Broken Arm Mountain" directed by Li Yu won seven nominations, including Best Drama Film, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Score and Best Film Song, becoming the best film in the table and attracting much attention. Meanwhile, Lin Yuquan's "Red Cliff" and Chow Xingchi's "Kung Fu" were shortlisted for Best Foreign Language Film, while Zhang Ziyi was also nominated for Best Actress in a Feature Film with "Memoirs of a Geisha". ”

Nominations for the 11th Critics' Choice Awards, sponsored by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), were announced today, and Brokeback Mountain's "Brokeback Mountain" directed by Li Yu topped the list with a total of 8 nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay, Best Song and Best Composition. Lin Yuquan's "Red Cliff" and Zhou Xingchi's "Kung Fu" were once again nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. ”

The hype of the news naturally detonated the attention of the showbiz and fans, and Li Yu and "Brokeback Mountain" are naturally the most eye-catching focus. However, "Red Cliff", which was shortlisted for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Lin Yuquan as a director have also received great attention, and some media have listed all the Chinese films that have won this nomination so far in their reports, starting with Li Yu's "The Wedding Banquet" in 1994 and Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine", to 1995 Li Yi's "Eating and Drinking", Zhang Yimou's "Alive", 1996 Zhang Yimou's "Shake, Shake, Shake to Grandma's Bridge", 2001 Li Yi's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", 2003 Dai Sijie's "Balzac and the Little Tailor", Zhang Yimou's "Hero" in 2003, Zhang Yimou's "Ambush on All Sides" in 2005, and Lin Yuquan's "Red Cliff" and Zhou Xingchi's "Kung Fu" in 2006, so many Chinese films, there are only 10 films in total, and 6 directors have been nominated. It can be seen from this how difficult it is, and among these directors, Lin Yuquan, who is only 22 years old, is undoubtedly the youngest among them, and the youngest Li Yu was 39 years old when he was nominated, which makes it even more valuable for Lin Yuquan to be nominated.

Among the 6 films and 4 directors nominated before, Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" and Li Yu's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" all won awards that year, and it can be said that the probability of winning the award is not low. Five of these films were subsequently nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" also won the first Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in the Chinese film industry.

As a director in the mainland who was nominated again after Zhang Yi and Chen Kaige, and has a great chance to compete for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the young Lin Yuquan naturally attracted much attention.

The Golden Globe nomination was announced in the early morning of the 13th local time in the United States, 16 hours earlier than the United States, and it was already 9 o'clock in the evening.

"Boss, we've been nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film."

"Oh, Golden Globe nominations." Lin Yuquan, who was watching a movie in the video room, paused the movie and said with a shock. Although I knew that Fox Searchlight helped sign up for "Red Cliff" before. But he never thought he would stand out from so many films. Being nominated for a Golden Globe Award and Critics for Best Foreign Language Film was a bit of an unexpected surprise.

"Yes, boss." Ding immediately told Lin Yuquan about the feedback from the Fox searchlight.

"Sure enough, it is worthy of being the favorite to win the Oscar, with so many heavyweight nominations, it seems that director Li Yu is bound to have a good harvest at the Golden Globe Awards and Critics' Choice Awards this time, and the next Oscar journey should be more certain, of course, we are also lucky, we are actually nominated for nomination." Lin Yuquan said with a smile on his face. There is an amazement in his words for Li Yu, although "Brokeback Mountain" is not his favorite movie genre, but from an artistic point of view, it is indeed impeccable, and it also has the satisfaction of being nominated for the Golden Globe Award, which is what many directors yearn for.

"Boss, I don't agree with you this time, luck is indeed very important, but boss, your strength is the most important decisive factor, if "Red Cliff" is not filmed well. No matter how bad luck is, luck can only play a role on the basis of strength. Ding shook his head. said seriously, if he still doubted Lin Yuquan's strength at the beginning, then with Lin Yuquan's successive successes, he has already admired Lin Yuquan in his heart, not only him, but all the employees of Shuguang Film Company have blind trust in Lin Yuquan.

"Don't praise me like that, I'm easy to be proud of." Lin Yuquan smiled.

"Hehe, boss, I didn't praise you, this is the truth, by the way, boss, I called you in addition to telling you the good news, I also want to ask us about our next move, you must know that the Golden Globe Award is the vane recognized by the Oscars, since we are now shortlisted for the Golden Globe Awards, then there is a great hope of being shortlisted for the Oscars, once we are shortlisted for the Oscars and win the award, the significance can be extraordinary, so should we immediately build publicity and compete for awards in the Golden Globes and Oscars." Ding Wei asked after a smile.

Lin Yuquan did not answer immediately, but thought about it, according to the selection rules of the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, a country can only submit one film, looking at the domestic films, the most limelight film this year is "Red Cliff", and there is almost no problem in submitting "Red Cliff" to participate in the selection. And the Golden Globe Awards is indeed the vane of the Academy Awards, judging from the previous situation of Li Yu, Zhang Yi and others, the possibility of being shortlisted for the Golden Globe Awards and then being shortlisted for the Academy Awards is very high.

Thinking of this, Lin Yuquan's eyes suddenly lit up, as the highest award in the world's film selection, the Academy Awards have always been regarded as a palace-level honor by filmmakers, and every filmmaker has the goal of winning the Oscar. But the competition for the Oscar is never limited to the quality of the film itself, in fact, in the past, those films that had the last laugh and finally won the award not only had their own excellent production standards, but also had superior public relations skills. Almost all the popular films that are expected to win awards will be promoted by their companies before each Oscar selection, usually hiring a special promotion team at a high price, placing hard advertisements in magazines, writing film reviews and lobbying to the judges, hoping to influence the Oscar voting results in the final stage to increase the film's chances of winning the award. Major contenders for Best Picture spend millions of dollars on special screenings, lavish galas, celebrity support, sensational interviews, and all sorts of advertising. The Oscars used to be pure, but today it's almost a practice of open and free competition at the Oscars.

Do you want to do it yourself? Lin Yuquan frowned, from the bottom of his heart, he hated this practice very much, it felt like spending money to buy awards, and the most important thing was that he was not the kind of extravagant and wasteful person, spending millions or even tens of millions of dollars just to win the Oscar was too cost-effective, of course, ordinary awards don't cost so much money. Of course, he also knows that film companies spend huge publicity dollars to compete for the Oscars, not just to bring home the statuettes, but more importantly, from the commercial side, winning the Oscars can bring significant commercial returns to these films. But it's also a gamble, and if you don't win, the publicity money you spend will be wasted, so it's important to do what you can.

Although Lin Yuquan feels that the award should reflect the value of the art of film itself, rather than being more aggressive and spending more money than anyone, he is not a hypocritical person, and the box office needs to be promoted. Merchants need to advertise their sales. Propaganda is a very important part of all walks of life in this era. Money obviously can't pave the way for the Oscar to win the award, the level of production of the film itself is the key, and the main purpose of the publicity campaign is to let as many of the more than 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as many people as possible see the film, if there are members who haven't seen the movie, they won't vote for the movie, and secondly, to seek a level playing field, when everyone but you is doing the same thing. The best thing to do is that you get involved too.

Thinking of this, Lin Yuquan had already made a decision, so he said to the other end of the phone: "You can discuss the matter of publicity with Fox Searchlight, after all, we have no experience in this area, I only have one request, the publicity cost should not exceed 1 million US dollars." ”

What Lin Yuquan wants is just a fair and free competitive environment, and he doesn't have any psychological burden to spend a small amount of money for this, and he really has to spend millions of dollars. Of course, it is not impossible, unless it is the best picture and the best director, the two most important awards for directors. Forget the rest, but he doesn't believe that "Red Cliff" can compete for these two awards, commercial films are not impossible to win such laurels, but he has self-knowledge, "Red Cliff" is a good-looking epic war movie, and it is far from reaching the height of "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings".

"Okay."

With the violent outbreak of the subsequent reports, Lin Yuquan, who stayed at home, was naturally not at peace, and many friends called or texted him to congratulate him, which made him annoyed.

For the nomination of the Golden Globe Award and the Critics' Choice Award, although he was happy, he didn't pay too much attention to it, the nomination is not important, the award is the most important, not to mention that what he is most concerned about at the moment is the next collision between "Red Cliff" and "King Kong" and "Wuji", not worrying, but looking forward to it, he wants to know what box office schedule his carefully filmed film will have in the face of such a strong opponent.

Just like the Oscar film effect, influential awards will undoubtedly have a good role in promoting the box office of the films being released, although they have not yet won the award, but "Red Cliff" as the only film currently released in China, including "Brokeback Mountain", "Kung Fu", and "Memoirs of a Geisha", which has been released for two weeks, has made its own popularity rise again, coupled with the collective appearance of Lin Yuquan and Yuquan Family's artists to help the premiere of "Wuji". Even many people who were not interested in the film began to go to the cinema to see how good it was to receive such a high nomination.

With this trend, the box office of "Red Cliff" No. 14 has risen compared to Monday and Tuesday, and the time finally came to December 15th, a day that countless people are looking forward to, and it is also a day that countless people are nervous about.

Countless expectant movie fans flocked to theaters on this day, with Los Angeles, New York, Houston, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Taipei, London, Moscow, Tokyo, and Seoul in every place where "Red Cliff", "King Kong", and "Wu Ji" were released.

The producers of the three films, the film company, and the relevant directors and actors paid close attention to the subsequent film reviews and box office situation of the films.

Soon the first day of the war came to an end, and after the single-day box office on the second day was released, as everyone expected, in North America, "King Kong", which opened at the same time in 3,568 theaters on December 14, US time, earned $9.8 million at the box office on the opening day, undisputedly ranking first in the single-day box office in North America. In China, the box office of Chen Kaige's "Wuji" reached 21.15 million yuan on the first day, which was only slightly lower than the box office of "Red Cliff", which was also released on Thursday.

"King Kong" and "Wuji" are gratifying at the box office, and "Red Cliff", another object that countless people are looking forward to, did not live up to everyone's expectations, in the third week of release, in the face of the impact of strong enemies, on Thursday, "Red Cliff" ranked second in the domestic single-day box office and third in the North American single-day box office with a 30% drop in the box office compared with the same period last week, such results could not be better.

Lin Yuquan finally put his mind at ease and rushed to Lijiang with a satisfied mood to participate in the premiere of "A Thousand Miles to Ride Alone" held in Lijiang on the 17th. (To be continued......) R1292