"The Oscar for Best Production Design goes to..."
On stage, Emma Watson opened the envelope in her hand, glanced at it, and announced, "Helena Espola, 'Dark City'!"
Applause filled the Dolby Theatre as Helena Espola stood up, exchanging hugs with Murphy and other members of the crew, before quickly making her way to the stage to accept the award.
"The first one!"
As Helena Espola began her acceptance speech, Gal Gadot whispered, "The first Oscar is in the bag!"
Sitting to her left, Murphy nodded slightly. The awards ceremony had been going on for over forty minutes, and the "Dark City" crew had just received their first Oscar of the night.
This wasn't a sign of a poor start for "Dark City." The earlier awards, such as Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Costume Design, were categories in which "Dark City" hadn't even been nominated. Without nominations, there were no Oscars to be won in those categories.
"With the first one..." Margot Robbie, sitting to Gal Gadot's right, said confidently, "the second one will come soon!"
As if to confirm her words, the next award for Best Cinematography went to Philippe Rousselot, who had won the award two years earlier and now stood on the Oscar stage once again.
With the Best Cinematography award and the earlier Best Production Design, it seemed like "Dark City's" award count was picking up. Over the next fifty minutes, Murphy's crew became a veritable award-winning machine, securing Oscars for Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Makeup, Best Editing, and Best Original Score.
"Eight nominations, eight Oscars..."
Leonardo DiCaprio turned to look at Murphy's side. "Is he really going to be the big winner tonight?"
Despite not wanting to see this outcome, he was powerless to stop it from becoming reality.
"Eight for eight!"
On the other side, Angelina Jolie frowned and said to Brad Pitt, "Is the Academy really going to give Murphy Stanton the biggest piece of cake again?"
"These are just eight technical awards," Brad Pitt said confidently. "Together, they aren't much better than our Best Supporting Actress win. Best Picture is definitely ours. Don't forget our film's subject matter!"
The African-American theme was his strongest weapon in the Oscar race, and before the nominations were announced, he had even incited some within the industry to stir up trouble. Those who couldn't see that even if an African-American film won, the real winners were still the investors and producers, were truly foolish.
The 100% hit rate was impressive, but there had been instances in Oscar history where an initial winning streak led to later disappointment. All eight Oscars won so far were in technical categories, and no one could predict whether the Academy would decide to spread the wealth.
But Murphy was confident that "Dark City" would be the night's biggest winner!
On one hand, the host Ellen DeGeneres had opened the show by targeting the Catholic Church, even joking that the heavy rain in Los Angeles before the Oscars was due to someone's prayers for God to punish Hollywood, but Hollywood wouldn't be stopped, so the awards show was going on.
On the other hand, the theme of this year's Oscars resonated with a praise for heroes.
What is the artistic standard for selecting films at the Oscars? Looking at the past eighty-six years, the Oscars have been quite capricious. In the past decade alone, they've alternated between favoring heavy, bloody topics, lively and positive atmospheres, trying to appeal to younger audiences, acknowledging that the old days can't be replicated, swinging between humor and sentimentality, carrying social responsibility on their shoulders, and deciding that art should serve itself...
To put it simply, at the Oscars, theme often outweighs standards. Setting a theme each year and selecting films accordingly might be the best approach for the Oscars. Compared to many other film awards, it is more mainstream and commercial, finding the most prominent trends and collective values of the year from a large pool of films.
Early in the ceremony, scenes introduced by Jim Carrey featuring animated heroes, and Harrison Ford introducing real-life heroes, set the tone: the world needs heroes, and we should praise those who sacrifice for it.
"Dark City" is a film with strong realism and philosophical reflection, portraying heroes in a way that matches this Oscar's spirit.
Murphy even speculated that the Academy's old guard might have chosen this theme to support him and "Dark City," asserting Hollywood's independence amidst societal pressures.
Yes, the Oscars have nearly six thousand voters, and influencing most of them is impossible. But the Academy's core members are crucial because their views and stances influence many voters.
These views and stances often define the theme of that year's Oscars.
This year's theme was particularly clear, emphasizing the importance of real-life heroes.
Murphy sat calmly in his seat, watching host Ellen DeGeneres joke on stage.
After last year's Oscars, where host Seth MacFarlane opened with a song about seeing actresses' breasts, causing discomfort among many stars, the Academy decided to change course. Ellen DeGeneres, with her unique identity and inherent charm, had promised not to roast the stars.
Even when she joked about June Squibb's age, it was done in a way that brought smiles rather than offense.
However, this did not make the Oscars particularly entertaining this year.
As Gal Gadot put it, tonight's Oscars felt like a test of patience, with a long, tedious, and poorly designed program.
Even an excellent host like Ellen DeGeneres couldn't enliven the dreary ceremony.
Despite her efforts, the results were mediocre.
No matter how talented a comedian, hosting the Oscars is a challenge.
One of Ellen's few highlights was getting a group of Hollywood stars to take a selfie, which she posted on Twitter, causing a sensation, although it seemed more like a Samsung ad.
On stage, Ellen DeGeneres joked about Jonah Hill's private parts again before mingling with the crowd, trying to create impromptu moments. But her "magic" seemed to have faded.
The brutal truth was that every unfunny joke during the ceremony made both the live and TV audiences check the time, realizing there was still a long way to go.
Indeed, the ceremony's slow pace dragged Ellen down.
The awards ceremony was excruciatingly slow, with the first award taking a lot of time to present, followed by a similarly dragged-out second award.
By 11:30 PM Pacific Time, the Best Original Screenplay award still hadn't been presented.
Most of the time-consuming segments involved nostalgia. As a tradition, the Oscars often feature video montages celebrating past actors and films, but this year had an excessive amount of such clips, focusing on how great the past was, which became tiresome and forced the audience to keep checking their watches.
Even Murphy, a seasoned attendee, saw the younger directors and actors around him getting impatient, smiling only when the camera panned to them.
It's understandable, as the Oscars and the Academy often romanticize the past, implying that current filmmakers and actors are inferior.
While the Academy may not intend this, it's hard not to draw such negative conclusions.
The constant nostalgia slowed the ceremony's pace, making Ellen DeGeneres' jokes fall flat. At one point, she sat with a guitar on stage, but nothing happened.
The endless nostalgia segments and tedious retrospectives made the ceremony drag on so long that Murphy suspected the Academy might still be counting votes backstage.
The program was so long that while the male guests were fine, many women suffered, including stars like Margot Robbie, who hadn't eaten dinner for the red carpet. By midnight, they were understandably uncomfortable.
Especially since Ellen DeGeneres brought out a giant pizza...
Around midnight, a long nostalgia video finally ended, and the ceremony moved on to the last six awards. Robert De Niro first presented the Best Adapted Screenplay award, followed by Jessica Alba coming on stage to present the Best Original Screenplay award!
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