"Darling, For the categories that our movie didn't get nominated for, whom should we vote for?"
In the living room of the villa, Ivanka looked up at this side. Duke put down the newspaper in his hand and said irresponsibly, "You make the decision."
"But I haven't seen the nominated movies." Ivanka scratched her face.
She held the pen above the ballot, clearly very interested in the power of voting for the Oscars on Duke's behalf.
Duke picked up a glass of water, walked over, and handed it to Ivanka, "Drink some water. You haven't had any since last night."
"I'm going to New York tomorrow for a promotional event. Dehydration will make me look slimmer…"
As she said this, Ivanka saw Duke's determined look, so she had no choice but to take the glass, "Okay, I give up on my dehydration diet plan."
She blinked her eyes quickly, deliberately pushing the ballot in front of Duke, "How should we choose?"
While Duke was looking at the ballot, Ivanka quickly took a small sip of the water and placed the cup back on the coffee table.
"I don't know who to vote for either." Duke shrugged, "The movies that don't relate to us, I haven't watched any of them."
In fact, he was one of the irresponsible members of the jury. Most of the nominated films, aside from a few he had seen in his past life, he had no intention of watching.
People like Duke made up a significant portion of the 6,000 Oscar voters.
A long time ago, Duke became an Academy member, one of the nearly 6,000 members. According to the Academy's rules, members were selected in two ways: one was through invitation, and the other was automatic upon receiving an Oscar nomination.
Duke belonged to the second group.
He had always been very busy, so fulfilling the duties of a jury member was mostly a formality. In most cases, like this one, he didn't have any personal connection to the awards. He would vote with his feet or choose based on familiar or pleasing names.
This method of voting was quite common among many Oscar jurors, and public relations and media promotion had the most significant impact on their choices.
The final vote for the Oscars this year would run from February 14, when the nomination list was announced, until February 25, when the award ceremony took place. After the ballots were mailed back to the Academy, they would be counted by two accountants from PwC. Once the votes were counted, the winners' names would be sealed, and these envelopes full of suspense and anticipation wouldn't be opened until the live broadcast of the Oscars.
The voting system for the Oscars has undergone many reforms over the years. In recent years, each Oscar has gone through two rounds of voting. All members of the Academy, who belong to one of the 14 professional branches, such as actors, directors, writers, and cinematographers, vote twice. The first round is to select the nominees, and the second round is to choose the winners.
In the first round, jurors can only vote for candidates within their own field. For example, Duke could only vote for director-related awards. Once the nominee list was revealed, all nearly 6,000 members could vote for awards in other categories.
Before the Academy expanded the nominations for Best Picture to ten, the new ranked-choice voting system did not exist. The voting method was still a typical "first-past-the-post" voting system.
Of course, no matter what the voting system is, the influence of public relations and lobbying plays a significant role, sometimes even determining the outcome of the awards.
For someone like Duke and his team members, most of them are Academy members. They participated in the work of nominating films, or their friends did, so how would they vote? It's not hard to guess.
In most situations, a person always has preferences, and these preferences are often influenced by the environment around them.
Ivanka spent five minutes voting for awards unrelated to "Return of the King." Duke sealed the ballot in an envelope and handed it to the butler, Emma, to mail it out. This marked the end of Duke's Oscar voting journey.
As the Oscars ceremony drew closer, more and more Academy members completed their voting tasks.
Howard Rodman, vice president of the Writers Guild, holds significant influence in this organization, which represents Hollywood screenwriters. Facing a few of his friends, he openly talked about his voting choice.
"I'll only vote for categories where I've seen all the related films." He said. Being a busy person, he could usually only watch the most impactful films of the year. Furthermore, the film that did all the work against him, "Return of the King," made the cut, "I'll vote for 'Return of the King.'"
His vote had already been mailed, but after work that evening, many of Howard Rodman's friends and subordinates also cast their votes for "Return of the King."
Tony Angelo, a public relations expert who has supervised and guided promotional activities for over 250 films, had been an Academy member since 1975.
"Dad, how did you choose to vote?" His son, Little Tony, asked curiously.
Hearing his son's question, Tony Angelo smiled, "Dear, watching all the nominated films is a very time-consuming task. Some categories, like visual effects, used to have only three nominees, but now there are five, making it even harder to watch everything."
"So…" He raised his left hand, covering his eyes, with his right hand holding a pen a foot above the ballot, "I choose this way."
After speaking, he let go of his right hand, and the pen dropped onto the ballot, landing on one of the film's names, leaving a black dot.
Tony Angelo took his left hand away, picked up the pen, and chose that movie in this category.
"Dad, do it again!" Little Tony shouted excitedly.
So, Tony Angelo covered his eyes once more…
Peter Bart, a contributing editor at Variety magazine, came home after a day of work. It wasn't until his wife reminded him that he remembered the Oscar voting deadline was fast approaching.
He entered his study, took out the envelope mailed by the Academy, and retrieved the ballot. His wife followed him in and looked at the list of nominated films and individuals.
"Darling, you haven't seen these movies."
Hearing his wife's words, Peter Bart casually shook his head, "I've read the reviews and talked to others. So, even though I haven't seen everything, I know what choice to make."
Regarding the scale and influence of the reviews, no film compared to "Return of the King," and everyone around Peter Bart was talking about it, so he didn't hesitate to choose "Return of the King."
On February 25, the Academy voting deadline, though the results wouldn't be known until the Oscars ceremony on the 29th, Panny Kallis, who handled Duke's public relations, was quite confident.
"Based on the feedback I've received," she remained calm, "Duke, your chances of winning are close to 80%, and 'Return of the King' can secure 7 to 9 awards."
Standing by the floor-to-ceiling window, Duke shifted his gaze from the sea, "That's pretty good."
No one can guarantee a 100% win. For "Return of the King" to achieve what it wanted, it required not only a lot of work but also a bit of luck.
Luck, something unseen and untouchable, could sometimes be quite important when all the work was done properly.
For example, some jurors who usually vote with their feet, where their feet fall, they themselves often can't be sure.
"How's your preparation going?"
As the last person Duke served before retirement, Panny Kallis had benefited greatly and devoted all her energy. Now, she was working solely for Duke.
Ivanka took over, "The dress is ready. We're just waiting for the awards ceremony to start."
Panny Kallis nodded and asked Duke, "What about the acceptance speech I prepared for you?"
"Don't worry, Panny." Duke raised his hand to point at his forehead, "It's firmly in here."
Although he wasn't an actor with great performance skills, according to the public relations plan, performing a dramatic acceptance speech after winning wasn't difficult.
At the Oscars stage, you can always see winners giving emotional or touching speeches, but over 80% of these are performances. Especially for the most significant awards, the winners will be emotional, but those exaggerated facial expressions, actions, and words may only be known by them, how much time they spent practicing in private.
On the highly anticipated Oscar stage, what you say and do cannot be taken lightly. Acceptance speeches are never written by the winners themselves. A seemingly ordinary speech is always drafted and reviewed by the public relations and agents beforehand.
Many celebrities are impulsive and speak without thinking. If they say the wrong thing at the Oscars, it could even affect their future.
For example, views on issues like war and homosexuality…
Duke's acceptance speech was prepared by him, Panny Kallis, and Nancy Josephson. It covered everything from personal awards to group awards, even specifying what to say at each time slot.
Public relations have always been an intricate discipline, and an acceptance speech, in some ways, is also a form of public relations.
In short, Duke was ready, waiting for the 76th Academy Awards ceremony to begin.