Standing in the ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Nanaya, surrounded by a large group of Hollywood professionals, listened quietly to the announcement of the winners on the stage in front.
Today is the 82nd Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon.
As the name suggests, the purpose of this banquet is to announce the nominations for this year's Academy Awards.
At this time of year in previous years, Nanaya would usually watch the live broadcast on TV, or simply come back to inquire about the contents of the list afterwards.
But this year is different. "Madoka Magica" is the first and possibly the last of Seven Nights, and the movie closest to the Oscars.
Now that you have made preparations to win the prize, you naturally have to do your best.
At least on the surface, Seven Nights has to appear to take the Oscars seriously.
As for after getting the trophy?
Although Nanaya would not do something too shocking like throwing the trophy into the trash can, it would easily challenge the hearts of those old men.
But it is very likely to be left in the cupboard gathering dust.
For Nanaya now, the Oscar is more like a relatively tedious achievement task in the list of achievements.
Getting it means that Nanaya can achieve platinum in the career field of [director].
But if you don't get it, it doesn't matter, you've already completed the game anyway.
It's just a pity at best.
"Here are the nominees for Best Picture."
An old white man stood at the front and read the list in his hand in a slow tone.
Every time he finished reading out the nominations for an award, the audience burst into warm applause.
Seeing his trembling appearance, Nanaya really doubted whether he would collapse in the next second due to a sudden heart attack caused by the cheers from the audience.
Fortunately, what Nanaya was worried about did not happen before the old man finished reading the list of all the nominations.
"The nominated films include The Hurt Locker, Avatar, District 9, An Education, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air."
The white old man's voice was not very loud, but everyone could hear it clearly.
"And Madoka Magica."
Nanaya immediately clapped happily with the people around him.
In addition to Best Picture, "Madoka Magica" also received 14 nominations including Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Original Screenplay.
This number is much higher than the 9 nominations for "Avatar".
Another film that received 9 nominations was Summit Entertainment's "The Hurt Locker," which won the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the Academy Awards in the previous life.
"The Hurt Locker" and "Avatar" are considered to be the strongest competitors of "Madoka Magica" this time.
It's not that Nanaya looks down on other movies, but they certainly don't quite suit the tastes of the Oscar judges.
Whether it's Quentin's "Inglourious Basterds", Paramount's "Up in the Air", or Pixar's "Up".
These films are excellent, but they are still quite far from the best films in the minds of the judges in terms of genre.
Nanaya believes that everyone outside can guess blindly that this year's best animated feature film will definitely belong to Pixar's "Up".
Even if you are not an insider, you can guess this result.
Pixar Studios' advantage in animation is so obvious that they can win awards just by participating.
Even award public relations don't require much investment.
But you can understand that Pixar has invested these public relations expenses into the movie from the very beginning.
Pixar Studios won the award, and all the animation studios including its former employer Disney were runners-up. This is a reserved item for the Oscars in the animation category.
Other animation studios, however, have no complaints at all.
I can only say that these people in Pixar Studios are a bunch of idiots.
Disney's own animation department later rose again with the help of this group of idiots.
After Disney acquired Pixar Studios, it brought the core members of Pixar Studios into Disney's animation production department.
Then these Pixar hackers showed the world how a big boss should play with a small account.
What Pixar brought to Disney was not only an improvement in production technology, but also a change in the concept of animation production.
Since then, Disney has regained its position as the leader in animated films with a series of films such as "Frozen" and "Zootopia".
Nanaya was really envious of this.
Although the production cycle of 3D animated films is relatively long, every successful animated feature film is a long-term project.
The profits that movie studios make from this are no less than those from successful live-action films.
Unfortunately, Washimine's strength in animated films is almost zero.
The famous Hollywood animation studios had already been divided up. How could the bosses behind the scenes let go voluntarily?
However, the level of 3D animation production in Washimine's hometown in Japan is really poor.
The 2D animation is of good quality, but its influence has basically dropped sharply outside the East Asian circle.
So Nanaya could only watch Disney and Pixar gain fame and fortune while sighing.
Why didn't you have the courage to snatch all three of Disney's harems?
There is a very good explanation for Nanaya's asking-for-a-beating behavior - taking advantage of others and acting ungratefully.
After the nomination list was announced, the rest of the luncheon was spent on socializing.
Although this was just a luncheon to announce the nominations, the Oscars are the highlight of the entire awards season, and there were quite a few people attending the party.
Many big-name actors, famous directors and producers, as well as public relations experts hired by film companies, came.
Seven nights ago, I saw Jim Ganopoulos of Fox working hard to do public relations for "Avatar".
Sandra Bullock, who had just been nominated for Best Actress for "The Blind Side", was talking passionately to a well-known film critic.
Obviously, they hope to get help from the other party in the formal voting process later.
Even Nanaya was no exception. He wandered among the crowd, selling his own works to people.
In such situations, you must be thick-skinned and you won't be able to ask for help without opening your mouth.
Fortunately, Nanaya has always been thick-skinned and has the reputation of being a director who has set new records at the movie box office.
Nanaya is quite popular with most of the guests.
For example, the [Smiling Mickey Mouse] from Disney.
"Long time no see, Director Kiryu."
Robert Iger flashed his signature smile and extended his hand to Nanaya.
Nanaya was also very polite: "Hello, Mr. Egg. We haven't seen each other for a long time."
"Yeah." Robert Iger sighed, "If I had known that Director Kiryu would be so successful, I would have recruited you to Disney no matter what."
"No, you praised me."
Nanaya smiled a little shyly.
Robert Iger pointed at Nanaya, and it was unclear whether he was praising Nanaya for his shamelessness.
It happened that Jim Ganopoulos walked past the two men, and the other party seemed not to see Nanaya and simply treated him as air.
Robert Iger showed a mocking expression on his face when he saw this.
"I have to say Director Kiryu did a good job this time, at least better than Cameron. It may not be so easy for him to win the box office champion in film history this time."
Although "Avatar" is indeed a commercial success, it is unlikely to catch up with or even surpass "Madoka Magica" in terms of box office performance.
Currently, the box office trends of both films have stabilized.
The two films grossed $2.3 billion and $1.8 billion worldwide, respectively.
Clearly, Madoka Magica is ahead of Avatar with $500 million.
The same situation exists as the box office performance in terms of reputation between "Madoka Magica" and "Avatar".
Most people generally believe that the plot of "Madoka Magica" is better than that of "Avatar".
This may be the reason why "Madoka Magica" performed more strongly in theaters.
It's actually easy to talk about treason, after all, the white left trend in Europe and the United States has begun to rise in the past two years.
Although the taste of the blue guy raping something is not quite right, it does not have too much of an impact.
In Europe and the United States, the most criticized part of the plot of "Avatar" is the love scenes.
It is no exaggeration to say that the love scene is really the most brainless part of "Avatar".
It would be fine if it was just the theme of heroes and beauties.
But there are too many elements between the hero and heroine that make life boring.
It follows the old routine of a beautiful encounter, grievances between wealthy families, opposition from the heroine's family, and finally the handsome guy rebelling because of the love of the beautiful woman.
Although if you take each element out individually, it's still acceptable if the story is well written.
But when all are combined, the passion is still shown in the form of two blue giants...
Although this is certainly not the most bloody love story in Hollywood in the past decade.
But it is definitely the most famous melodramatic love story in Hollywood in the past decade.
If the love scenes were just embellishments, it might be better.
But the bloody love between this man and woman runs through the entire script, and even the most critical turning point is driven by love.
If it were a work by other directors, the audience would just laugh it off.
But who is the director of "Avatar"? !
Most of the audience will certainly never forget the love story in "Titanic" that was unforgettable all over the world.
Cameron, you spent ten years honing your skills, and this is what you show us? ! !
Is it worthy of Jack and Rose who have become fat women and fat brothers? ? ? ! ! !
In the previous life, everyone was immersed in the wonderful visual wonders of "Avatar" and was not so demanding on the script.
Because at that time "Avatar" monopolized the 3D movie market.
But this time it's different.
This time, there is a movie whose visual effects are not inferior to "Avatar" - "Madoka Magica".
Because the two films have different focuses on visual effects, it is very difficult to compare the two films in terms of visual effects.
But compared to "Madoka Magica", the storyline can almost get full marks.
There is no doubt that the story mode of "Avatar" is really too old-fashioned.