American fame and fortune.

Chapter 904 Best Director

From before Christmas to after the New Year of 2017, Martin stayed in Atlanta on vacation, and even entrusted Lily to fill out the Oscar ballot distributed by the Academy.

At the headquarters of the Coca-Cola Cult, Martin handed a box he brought to Robert.

"Isn't there another Oscar statue in there?" Robert asked.

Martin said: "I am borrowing David Fincher's Oscar for Best Director for a while. I will return it after this year's Oscars ceremony is over."

Robert understood: "Don't worry, the security here is very strong."

Martin nodded: "Let's do the ceremony as soon as possible."

Robert picked up the little golden man and went upstairs to perform his Coke sacrifice ceremony.

"Let's go." Martin pulled Elena away.

Elena put her hands in her windbreaker pockets and asked, "Are you going to compete for Best Director?"

"I've made a lot of preparations, so I have to give it a try." When they got outside, Martin helped Elena open the passenger door. He then turned to the driver's seat and said after getting in the car, "No one has ever won both the Best Actor and Best Director Oscars. I want to see if I can get this special record."

Elena didn't quite understand Oscar's words, so she asked, "Where are we going next?"

“I have a surprise prepared,” Martin said.

Elena shrugged slightly.

Martin started the car, left Peachtree Street, and soon arrived at Atlanta's famous wealthy villa area.

Bruce was waiting in front of one of the single-family mansions.

Seeing Martin's car coming, he waved and opened the electronic gate.

Martin drove straight in, through the tree-shaded courtyard, where there was an English villa that Elena had particularly loved when she was young.

This mansion, including the courtyard, covers an area of ​​more than 3 acres and is worth a lot of money.

Martin got out of the car, waited for Bruce to come over, took the file bag in his hand, and handed it to Elena: "When we lived in Marietta, we dreamed of moving into a Victorian-style mansion like this one day."

He pointed to the file bag and said, "Take a look around. If there's anything you're not satisfied with, contact the construction company. They can make adjustments based on your suggestions."

Elena didn’t think about ending her relationship with Martin, so she didn’t say anything polite to him: “The house is nice, I’ll take it.”

She walked towards the villa. "This place is quiet, spacious, and private. It's also suitable for you to stay when you return to Atlanta."

Martin took her into the villa.

The two of them looked at it and discussed how to adjust the layout.

As the New Year holiday comes to an end, Los Angeles becomes lively again, and the annual awards season is at its most intense.

Agents in suits and well-dressed public relations managers haunt Burbank and Beverly Hills.

Davis Studios, Warner Bros., and Martin's sponsors, including Coca-Cola, Brioni, Cadillac and Cartier, have invested tens of millions of dollars in public relations and publicity.

This is firmly ranked first among all Hollywood award-winning films.

Ranked second is "The Revenant" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

Two wealthy men with plenty of money and capital, and whose films are of perfectly OK quality, are killing it in the awards season with their cash power.

When it comes to Oscars, the more prepared you are, the greater your chances of winning.

The popularity of Martin has remained high.

In the media, you can see soft articles praising Martin everywhere.

According to feedback from the public relations team, most of the judges have not seen "Joker", and the sample film mailed to them was just a test.

Working directors are all very busy people. Who has the time to watch a movie like this that has no financial interests involved?

The focus of all media publicity and marketing is to let the judges of the Best Director know that Martin directed the well-received "Joker", and it was highly praised by Hollywood industry peers and film critics.

Martin also returned to Los Angeles from Atlanta and frequently appeared at various events.

Canvassing is the job of public relations managers, and all they have to do is maintain sufficient exposure.

The most attractive exposure for judges during the awards season is a series of outpost awards.

Therefore, there have been very few Oscar upsets in the past twenty years, because the winner of the Sentinel Award is basically the Oscar winner.

Since the establishment of the major union awards, the overlap rate between their results and the corresponding Oscar awards has been over 95%.

In order to win an Oscar, Martin attended the Golden Globe Awards in mid-January in a high-profile manner. "Joker" successfully won the Best Director and Best Picture.

Leonardo DiCaprio easily took home the Best Actor in a Drama award.

"Joker" has been maintaining high-intensity publicity and marketing. Although it is easy to cause some people to rebel, it is more likely to make the judges feel familiar with it.

Martin has basically used all legitimate means to increase exposure.

Brioni has created a custom-made suit that looks just like the Joker.

As early as the release of "Joker", Coca-Cola with the same clown paint has maintained high sales.

Cadillac also launched the same Joker classic car as in the movie, which also sold well.

Cartier also has commemorative watches on sale.

Just before the Oscar nominations were announced, Martin walked onto the Walk of Fame and had his own star engraved on it.

In the Oscar nomination list subsequently announced, "Joker" received a total of eight nominations including Best Costume Design, Best Sound Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture.

This is also the film with the most nominations at the 89th Academy Awards.

In Davis Studio, everyone gathered in the conference room.

Thomas said: "It's not much different from what we expected. The nominees for Best Director are Mel Gibson, Denzel Washington, Kenneth Lonergan and Stephen Frears."

The latter is the director of "Queen of Off-Tune".

Public relations manager Martha Kennett said: "The most active public relations are Mel Gibson and Denzel Washington. Both of them have invested millions of dollars in the production team."

Not to mention the funds necessary for the awards, the latter two's influence in the academy is several levels lower than Martin's.

Martin pondered for a moment and said, "The next round of voting will begin soon. We should shift the focus of publicity a little bit and mobilize our resources to encourage the media to publish more about Mel Gibson's incident. In addition, we should also focus on last year's Moonlight Boy incident."

Everyone understood what it meant.

Mel Gibson told some truths back then, and the Squids broke their defenses. Given the Squids' behavior, if they think of this, they won't vote for him.

Last year's "Moonlight" blunder caused huge controversy and also calmed the unrest among black people and diversity.

If nothing unexpected happens this time, the possibility of a black person winning the four major awards is zero.

Since late January, entertainment media have always mentioned Mel Gibson's actions that year in a prominent position.

There are too many squids in the Hollywood industry, and even more in the director industry.

The relevant news in the media undoubtedly reminded these people what Mel Gibson had done.

They rarely vote for Mel Gibson.

As for the first choice in the vote, since I haven't seen the movie, I naturally chose "Joker" and Martin, which are often seen in the media and mentioned by others, and are also the most popular.

"Joker" itself is very popular. The film was removed from major theaters in North America in mid-February, and the North American box office remained at US$5.48 million.

The film is still being shown overseas and box office revenue has continued to grow, with the global box office cumulatively reaching US$12.88 billion.

"Joker" became the North American and global box office champion in 2016, and is the only film to have grossed over $5 million in North America.

People magazine released a special cover issue featuring Joker ahead of the Oscars.

In it, it was highly praised: "Joker, directed and acted by Martin Davis, is one of the best Hollywood films ever in terms of combining commerciality, social reality and artistic depth!"

On the last weekend of February 2017, the 2th Academy Awards ceremony was held on time at the Dolby Theater.

This time the badass trio walked the Oscars red carpet together.

The content of the interviews in the media area is the same every year. Martin did not accept the interview and went straight into the theater, calling out to Leonardo and Nicholson.

The seats for the three were still arranged together.

The crew of "Joker" and "The Revenant" also sat in the same row in the same area.

People around came over to say hello frequently.

At the three major union awards whose results were announced earlier, Martin won the Directors Guild Award for Best Director, Leonardo won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor, and "Joker" defeated a number of competitors and won multiple union awards for Best Picture.

Martin had a very stable mentality and did all the work in advance, so he was able to win and receive the award with dignity at the award ceremony.

Leonardo was not too nervous, after all, he had an Oscar in his hand.

Nicholson looked at Martin and said, "You won an award tonight, you bastard. That's your fourth Oscar, tied with Katharine Hepburn. You're still so young, you're going to set a record in the future."

Martin quickly stopped him: "Don't say that, we don't know the result yet."

Leonardo is very superstitious about Martin: "The game is not over yet, we must not celebrate in advance."

Nicholson simply kept his mouth shut.

As the music started, the award ceremony began.

…………

In Beverly Hills, Lily was directing the people from the fireworks company to place the firework launchers one by one on the front lawn.

Elizabeth walked quickly out of the villa gate and shouted to her: "The award ceremony has begun."

Lily turned around and said with a smile: "Don't worry, there are still several hours before Martin's award."

Elizabeth waited at the door for a while, and Lily came back quickly. They walked into the living room hand in hand, just as the live TV camera turned to Martin.

In the close-up, Martin was clapping loudly. "Joker" won the first golden award of the night - Best Editing!
Lily said, "It's just the first one."

"We won the Best Editing Award." Elizabeth said specifically, "If we win a screenplay award or a photography award later, we'll definitely win the Best Picture award."

The next award was for Best Cinematography, and Joker won again.

Elizabeth and Lily high-fived each other.

They were not worried at all about whether Martin could get the award he wanted. The Directors Guild Award, with an overlap rate of nearly 99%, had already foreshadowed the result.

On the contrary, there may be changes in the Best Picture award, which all Academy members can vote on.

…………

Malibu, Mene's new home.

Celine Dion stood at the kitchen exit and said to the servant, "Send the fruit plate and wine over. Don't serve strong wine. Hurry up."

The servant quickly responded.

Celine Dion returned to the living room and greeted the women brought by Chad, Marcus, Chen Hu and others.

The servant brought over wine and a fruit plate.

Suddenly, Mene shouted loudly: "Another key award!"

Chad, Marcus and Chen Hu also stood up and applauded.

Marcus also said loudly: "That bastard Bradt won an Oscar, let him treat us tomorrow!"

Chen Hu asked: "Why not today?"

Mene poured drinks for a few people and said, "Because after the awards ceremony we are going to Martin's place to celebrate!"

"Sh ...

Everyone else understood what was going on and stopped talking about it.

The female members of the family also turned to look at the TV. It turned out that Bradt, the screenwriter of "Joker", won the Best Screenplay Award!

…………

In Atlanta, Elena, who had just moved to a new home, also sat in front of the TV.

Hall, wearing a baseball cap, walked back and forth, spinning a baseball in his hands.

Harris was dissatisfied: "Can't you sit down?"

"The trainer doesn't let me sit for long periods of time and makes sure I keep exercising." Hall, now a big star in MLB, has just recovered from a minor injury.

Hearing what was said on the live TV, Elena shouted, "Shut up, you two idiots! The awards will be presented soon."

Although Hall and Harris had grown up, their sister's majesty and suppression were always there. The two of them quickly shut up and turned their eyes to the TV.

Hall muttered, "There's a change this year. The Best Director award has been moved before the Best Actor and Best Actress awards."

Harris, who had been with Martin in Hollywood for some time, said: "Is this the Academy's reform of Hollywood? Adjust the order of awards..."

Elena's eyes swept over, and the chaotic voices disappeared immediately.

…………

Dolby Theater, award presenter Tom Cruise took the stage.

Leonardo whispered, "Don't be nervous. You are still young. If you are upset, you can still be in the next session."

Martin's voice was equally low: "Even if I lose, you still have fewer golden men than me."

Leonardo's mouth trembled and he didn't want to talk anymore.

Nicholson shook his head: "Why are you provoking him? You are obviously the worst at the Oscars."

Leonardo swore that he would never stand next to these two bastards at the next award ceremony.

Not far away, Denzel Washington still had some hope. He turned over his hand to look at the dark back of his hand and felt that he still had some advantages.

Mel Gibson took it all lightly, knowing that the squids would not let him win any awards.

One day, he would write a script and make a movie to expose the true nature of the squids and slaughter them all.

Tom Cruise introduced the five nominated directors one by one, looked down at the envelope, and said with a smile: "There will be no mistake this time, it says Best Director."

He turned over the envelope and let the main camera take a picture of the subtitles on it. Then he took out the card, took a glance at it, and said, "The best director is Martin Davis, the director of Joker!"

There were no surprises and no suspense. Like most Oscar awards, the winner of the Guild Award is the corresponding Oscar winner.

The applause was particularly enthusiastic.

Martin stood up, hugged Leonardo, Nicholson and others one by one, and strode towards the stage.

Davis Estate, Beverly Hills.

"We won! We won—"

Lily hugged Elizabeth to celebrate, then rushed out of the villa and shouted to the lawn: "Set off the fireworks! Now!"

With the sound of bang, bang, bang, countless fireworks exploded above Beverly Hills.

Inside the mansion in Malibu, Mene had already opened the champagne he had prepared, poured a glass for everyone, and said, "Congratulations to Martin for winning the award, and I wish our new film a big hit!"

Chad, Marcus, Chen Hu and others, as well as Celine Dion and other female relatives, raised their glasses to celebrate together.

In the mansion in Atlanta, when Hall heard Martin's name, he excitedly threw the baseball in his hand. The ball hit a window and the glass shattered.

Harris said: "Your way of celebrating is really special."

"Don't do it again!" Elena's face was full of happy smiles, and she ignored Hall's broken glass.

Hall said: "I am so happy that Martin won the award. I will have someone replace him tomorrow."

Harris glanced at the window and saw bright lights flashing in the sky. "There are fireworks," he said.

Hall and Elena both looked over there, and the latter said, "In the direction of the Coke Cult headquarters, it should have been Robert and the others who put it there."

…………

Meanwhile, inside the Dolby Theatre.

There was a loud roar coming from the audience seats at the back.

It turned out that countless ordinary audiences spontaneously stood up and applauded.

A huge wave of people rushed towards the media and guest seats, and more people stood up.

The whole audience stood up and applauded!
Martin walked onto the stage, took the golden statue from Tom Cruise, and nodded: "Thank you."

Tom Cruise immediately stepped aside.

"Thank you to the Academy and the judges for their recognition." Martin said a cliché first, then quickened his speech: "I am a new director and encountered various difficulties when shooting the movie. Many people have helped me. Nolan and David Fincher are the best teachers, Steve Downton is the best assistant, and Louise, you have relieved me of my worries... I want to thank them, thank every member of the Joker crew, thank my company, agent and public relations team, and thank everyone I have met in my life!"

The time was almost up, and he looked at the two old friends again: "Jack, I won't thank you because you always like to hit me. Leo, I wish you good luck."

The camera immediately turned away.

Martin went backstage but did not leave. Instead, he stood at the backstage entrance, waiting for the results of other awards.

Brie Larson walked onto the stage holding an envelope to present the Best Actor award.

The Joker crew did not apply for this award.

There was no upset either. Leonardo DiCaprio, who swept the Sentinel Awards and won the Screen Actors Guild Best Actor Award, won the Best Actor award for "The Revenant".

Leonardo entered the backstage holding the golden man, and saw Martin at a glance. He hurried over and bumped fists with him.

The two men first bumped fists, then hugged each other and congratulated each other.

Martin said: "There is also a prize to see who wins."

Leonardo said: "The loser will call the biggest party this year."

Martin responded: "No problem."

Clint Eastwood took the envelope for Best Picture. He didn't want to embarrass himself at such an old age, so he repeatedly confirmed with the director and the accountant from PricewaterhouseCoopers: "Are you sure you got the right envelope?"

The accountant assured again and again: "Absolutely not. We have checked three times."

Hearing the music and sounds from the front desk, the director quickly asked someone to go on stage.

Clint Eastwood strode onto the stage, and after a series of routines, announced the last award of the night: "Best Picture is Joker!"

Leonardo fist-bumped Martin and said, "Congratulations, man."

Martin smiled and said, “You can come back next year.”

People around were sending their congratulations.

At the guest seats, Louise called together the main creative staff of the crew to go on stage to receive the award.

The award for Best Picture went to the entire crew.

Martin walked out from backstage, reunited with the crew, and together with Louise received the little golden man from Eastwood.

After winning the Best Director award, "Joker" also won the Best Picture award, becoming the biggest winner of this year's Oscars!

(End of this chapter)