Chapter 448: Reaching the Summit

Chapter 448: Chapter 448: Reaching the Summit

With the Best Director award successfully settled, the boiling applause inside the venue lingered for a long time, but everyone knew in their hearts that tonight’s ultimate game and final suspense had just reached the critical point.

Best Director was never the end of the ceremony; Best Picture was the Oscar’s well-deserved finale crown, an all-encompassing ultimate evaluation of the entire film’s script, cinematography, acting, production, and humanistic value. It was the highest honour pursued by all cast and crew, investors, and creators, as well as the unresolved and most elusive ultimate showdown of this awards season.

The cheers inside the venue slowly faded, replaced by a nearly stagnant silence. The air seemed to be instantly evacuated, and a heavy sense of oppression enveloped the entire Kodak Theatre.

Everyone, who had just been ecstatic and excited by Ang Lee’s victory, had their emotions instantly suspended in mid-air. No one dared to relax, and no one dared to celebrate in advance.

Even though Brokeback Mountain had swept the year-round precursor awards and swept the Golden Globe Awards and BAFTA Best Picture, even though its word-of-mouth, depth, and humanistic empathy led by a landslide across the board, the voting mechanism of the Oscar Best Picture has always been full of variables. The aesthetic preferences, circle balance, vote splitting, and psychological compensation of the Academy judges meant there was never an absolute guarantee of victory.

Holding eleven nominations tonight and following closely behind all the way, The Aviator remained the biggest variable.

It relied on Harvey Weinstein’s top-tier PR manipulation, featuring a Hollywood The Best Years of Our Lives nostalgia narrative, precisely hitting the nostalgic filters of numerous veteran judges, and enjoyed exceptional public relations and peer goodwill.

Countless film critics and media agencies within the industry maintained a cautious attitude during pre-race reviews, generally judging this to be a fifty-fifty ultimate deadlock. Until the very last second of unsealing the list, no one could be certain of the result.

In the front row, Ang Lee, who had just shed tears of relief, subconsciously tensed his body again. His newly relaxed shoulder line tightened instantly, his hands interlocked once more, his fingertips trembling slightly, and intense apprehension and unease resurfaced in his eyes.

The ecstasy of winning faded away, and the extreme anxiety of waiting swept over his entire body.

The Director award was a recognition of him personally, but Best Picture was the ultimate seal on the years of hard work by the entire crew, carrying a completely different weight.

Beside them, Heath Ledger and Jack Gyllenhaal completely held their breath, their bodies leaning slightly forward, their gazes locked dead on the stage, even their breathing becoming cautious. In the back, no one from the crew sat down; all of them rose slightly, their expressions tense and solemn, with extreme anticipation and apprehension hidden in everyone’s eyes.

Hundreds of millions of live broadcast viewers across the network similarly fell into an extreme breathless wait. Countless people clenched their palms, staring at the silent stage on the screen, their hearts beating wildly with every second of silence on stage.

Even the customarily calm Irene felt a trace of ripples in her heart at this moment, lacking absolute certainty.

She was well-versed in the unspoken rules of the Oscar. Even with memories of her past life and having avoided the biggest regret of being intercepted by Crash in advance, she still dared not underestimate the Oscar’s circle games.

The Academy had always favoured native Hollywood narratives, and The Aviator happened to hit all the bonus points; whereas Brokeback Mountain had a niche subject matter, restrained style, and detached narrative. Although its artistic value was legendary, it always faced circle controversies.

She could be certain of the script, certain of the cinematography, and certain of the director’s personal ability, but she alone could not be one hundred percent certain of the destination of Best Picture.

This was an ultimate game between artistic value and circle nostalgia; victory or defeat never lay in paper data, but solely in a single thought of the judges.

On the surface, she still maintained a calm and peaceful posture, sitting upright in her original place. No one noticed that her palms tightened slightly, and the suspense in her heart synchronised with everyone else’s, hanging at the peak.

On the stage, tonight’s finale award presenters Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand slowly walked out. Their postures were steady and their aura grand, taking in all the gazes under the spotlight of the entire audience.

There was no extra foreshadowing and no lengthy opening remarks. The more ultimate the award, the more restrained and lingering the rhythm.

The presenters stood before the microphone, silent for two seconds, deliberately prolonging the waiting time of the entire audience and pushing the tense atmosphere of the entire theatre to the extreme.

Countless people’s hearts beat wildly, and the air was so silent that the subtle breathing of the audience could be heard. Every second of waiting was extreme torment and anticipation.

At the moment when everyone in the audience was on the verge of extreme tension, Dustin Hoffman finally lowered his head, solemnly opened the sealed golden winning envelope, and pulled out the embedded final list. After his gaze swept over the words, he handed the list to Barbra Streisand. After reading it, Barbra immediately raised a loud, resolute voice that penetrated the entire audience, loudly and clearly declaring word by word:

"The 77th Academy Awards — Best Picture — Brokeback Mountain!"

This short sentence, like a thunderclap exploding, instantly cleaved open the stagnant silence of the entire audience!

After two seconds of dead silence, the entire Kodak Theatre completely exploded and boiled over! The tension, apprehension, anxiety, and anticipation suppressed for a full ten minutes burst forth completely at this moment. The thunderous applause, cheers, shouts, and waves of standing ovations swept across the audience, mighty and deafening, soaring straight to the theatre’s dome and becoming tonight’s most explosive, grandest, and irreplaceable highlight moment.

Countless filmmakers sprang to their feet, applauding vigorously and cheering loudly, paying tribute to this legendary masterpiece that broke through circles and prejudices and reached the summit on pure artistic strength.

All previous controversies, all doubts, and all suspenseful tugs-of-war completely settled and vanished like smoke at this moment.

In this lifetime, there was no heaven-defying interception by Crash, no malicious coercion of public opinion storms, and no deliberate suppression by the prejudices of the era.

Relying on its ultimate lens language, restrained and profound humanistic core, and the ultimate polish of an all-in-form cast, Brokeback Mountain forcibly defeated The Aviator—which led in nominations, had formidable PR, and was backed by nostalgia—in an ultimate showdown surrounded by formidable enemies and filled with maximum suspense. With an absolute posture that was well-deserved and undisputed, it firmly stood atop the highest hall of the Oscar and reached the summit as the Best Picture of the year!

This was a complete victory belonging to the entire cast and crew fighting side by side, the top glory of Ang Lee deeply cultivating light and shadow and upholding his original intention, and even more, the ultimate coronation won by Irene through days of strategic planning, steady and solid progress, precise control of every detail, keeping a low profile to avoid the spotlight, and wholeheartedly polishing the work.

It was a grand completion won through countless nights endured by everyone, countless pressures withstood, and countless controversies carried, ultimately traded for this grand perfection.

The emotions that had been tensed all night were completely relieved. A relaxed, bright, and heartfelt genuine smile finally rippled across Irene’s face, with the clarity and fulfilment of settled dust precipitating in the depths of her eyes.

All cautious layouts, all low-key forbearance, and all behind-the-scenes polishing had their echoes.

She stood up abruptly, embracing tightly with Ang Lee, who was teary-eyed and barely able to hide his excitement by her side, and then turned to embrace all the main creators one by one, including Heath Ledger and Jack Gyllenhaal, sharing this hard-earned ultimate glory filled with suspense.

As the Producer of the film, Irene joined hands with Ang Lee to lead the entire creative team of Brokeback Mountain as they stepped up together to the highest podium of the Oscar.

The spotlights were overwhelmingly brilliant, the Oscar statuette shone brightly, and the gentle narrative and utmost sincere film art from the East completely conquered Hollywood, conquered the Oscar, and conquered the whole world.

Tonight, Brokeback Mountain won four out of seven nominations, bagging four heavyweight awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Director, and Best Picture. With the posture of an absolute king, it reached the summit of the 77th Oscar, creating its own legend of light and shadow, and engraving Irene Coppola’s name once more upon the monument of honour of Hollywood’s Oscar, making it increasingly brilliant and dazzling.