King of Hollywood

Chapter 104: Chapter 104 Oscar (III)

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final Oscar ceremony,” announced host Billy Crystal excitedly, jumping onto the stage as the prelude music began to fade and the lights in the hall brightened.

Then he paused, carefully looking around before asking nervously, “Did I just misspeak? Did I say this is the last one? Oh, God, I think I might have had too much coffee.”

Laughter immediately filled the hall, followed by a round of applause. Adrian, who was sitting a bit toward the back with the crew of “The Shawshank Redemption,” couldn’t help but join in the clapping.

It had to be admitted that Billy Crystal was quite skilled at stirring up the atmosphere. This wasn’t unrelated to his days performing stand-up at various coffeehouses and on campus when he was young. Before he became known as an actor, he had always been a host for TV talk shows and comedy programs, which is probably why the Oscars had invited him to host seven ceremonies.

“Alright, let’s take a break for now and see what the first award is. If we delay any longer, the viewers in front of their TVs will surely start shouting, ‘Hey, that guy, it’s time for you to go down––Oh, God, I think I already hear them,’ so––” Crystal spread his hands and then swiftly turned and slipped offstage, prompting another wave of laughter.

Generally speaking, the order of the Oscar awards isn’t fixed, except for the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Picture. These four awards are of the highest importance and are always presented last, while the technical categories are usually presented first. Sometimes, to attract ratings, Best Supporting Actor or Actress might be awarded first, but such cases are not common—at least not today, as the first award was for Best Cinematography.

“The winner of Best Cinematography is: Robert Richardson, ‘JFK’!” With the presenter’s announcement, a middle-aged man’s portrait suddenly filled the side screen. Wearing an expression of surprise, he seemed to be in disbelief.

Down at the audience seats, the ‘JFK’ crew became lively. Robert Richardson quickly stood up amidst applause, his surprise and disbelief replaced by excitement. After receiving congratulations from friends and colleagues, he walked up to the stage to the sound of applause.

This was the first one. Clapping, Adrian glanced at their slightly disappointed cinematographer Dave, who, along with the camera team, had poured a lot of effort into capturing those scenes. Adrian, who had handled the camera himself, was well aware of that. But it didn’t matter; if they worked together in the future, there would be plenty of opportunities to win awards, not to mention that “The Shawshank Redemption” wasn’t really aiming to win tonight.

Two more awards followed in quick succession, both technical categories: Best Sound and Best Sound Editing. Unsurprisingly, ‘Terminator 2′ scooped them up, with Cameron always being at the cutting edge of technology in Hollywood.

Perhaps after the ceremony ended, it would be a good time to have a chat with him. Listening to the winners’ speeches, Adrian thought about this. They hadn’t crossed paths on the red carpet earlier due to various reasons, and he couldn’t afford to miss him again later. Although he kept in touch with James over the phone, it was hardly as effective as personal interaction. After finishing ‘Terminator 2’, this guy had started his vacation, and there was definitely something that would catch his interest.

“I have to admit, ‘Terminator 2’ is a great movie. When I saw the T-1000 walk out of the flames, I almost twisted off the chair back in front of me,” Kristo rambled on stage after the musical performance, “Luckily, I didn’t do that, or the movie theater owner would’ve stopped me and the reporters would’ve posted it all over the newspapers. These guys even know what our young director was thinking in his head after breaking the rules in high school.”

The audience roared with laughter while the members of ‘The Shawshank Redemption’ crew turned their gazes toward Adrian, who after being astonished for two seconds helplessly shrugged his shoulders. Alright, Kristo was just using this opportunity to make fun of the reporters.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated on ɴονǤο.сօ

“But, frankly speaking, although James’ movie is pretty good, trying to get an acting award nomination through his movie seems to be quite a difficult task.” Kristo slightly teased Cameron then immediately shifted the topic back to the awards, “Next, let’s see which lucky person will get the Best Supporting Actor and Actress!”

As the music sounded, Joe Pesci, the recipient of the Best Supporting Actor Award at the last ceremony and who had significant scenes with Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Goodfellas’, walked out with a smile, holding an envelope.

“As everyone knows, in a movie, the protagonist is very important. A good protagonist can drive the plot, attract the audience’s attention, and fully express what the film wants to say,” Joe Pesci talked on, “But to perfectly achieve all this, you must have outstanding supporting actors to complement, and sometimes, a brilliant supporting actor can even steal the spotlight from the protagonist. Now, let’s see which outstanding supporting actresses we had over the past year.”

With his words, the small screen beside split into five sections, revealing one by one the female actors nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Adrian wasn’t familiar with any of them, so he didn’t pay much attention; his mind was already on the upcoming Best Supporting Actor.

Apart from Morgan Freeman, also nominated were Tommy Lee Jones for ‘JFK’, Jack Palance for ‘City Slickers’, Ben Kingsley for ‘Bugsy’, and Michael Lerner for ‘Barton Fink’. Adrian hadn’t bothered to remember in detail, so he couldn’t be sure who actually received the Oscar statuette this time.

According to the intelligence gathered, none of the five candidates had a clear advantage in acting, so the key to victory would lie in external factors. A severe issue here is Freeman’s role in ‘The Shawshank Redemption’. To say he was a lead would be plausible, as in another timeline, he was indeed nominated for Best Actor. Therefore, compared to the other supporting actors, Freeman might stand out a bit more, and given that he’s been nominated for several Oscars before, is black, and is competing for Best Supporting Actor, it’s hard to say if the judges wouldn’t choose him.

Being black is sometimes a disadvantage, but at times, it can be an advantage.

At this moment, the winner of Best Supporting Actress for ‘The Fisher King’, Mercedes Ruelle, had already finished her acceptance speech and returned to her seat. Ubi Goldberg, winner of the Best Supporting Actress at the last ceremony, already made her way out to present the Best Supporting Actor.

(Come on, bring on more recommendation tickets! Let’s make a slight adjustment, hmm)