Et is the story that the American film academy likes to see in the headlines as it gallops to the Oscars: The red carpet in Los Angeles has been rolled out – but it’s not red anymore! But champagne colored. How can they! Since 1961 the carpet was red. The red carpet is much more than a pad, it’s a state of mind! Copied by thousands of events across the world! The Berlinale even managed to make an ecologically correct red from recycled fishing nets. And now, of all things, the Oscars go to Cremeweiß. Incomprehensible!
Enough of the style chatter. There are more serious questions at the 95th Academy Awards. For example, the Academy is pursuing a lawsuit filed in a Los Angeles court on December 29 last year. Producer Bradley Fischer sued his former employer, the film company New Republic, for lost benefits. Fischer has been instrumental in films such as Shutter Island, Black Swan, Top Gun: Maverick, and Mission Impossible 7.
Champagne is the new red: The new Oscar carpet in Los Angeles
What: AFP
None of this affects the Oscar Academy – except that they have given “Top Gun” six nominations, including Best Picture. Now, however, New Republic funded a not-inconsiderable chunk of the $170 million that Top Gun cost (the film has grossed $1.5 billion in theaters worldwide to date, and Cruise has made $100 million from it), and — now it will interesting – one of the sponsors of New Republic is said to be, through a shell company, the Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev. Says Fischer’s complaint.
Rybolovlev became a billionaire on fertilizers, owns French Premier League club AS Monaco and an EU passport, bought Donald Trump’s “House of Friendship” on Palm Beach and Will Smith’s mansion in Hawaii. He reportedly withdrew his funds from New Republic – fearing confiscation – costing Fischer a lucrative contract extension.
Now the World Congress of Ukrainians, an international non-governmental organization that represents the interests of Ukrainians outside their country, has demanded that the academy withdraw Top Gun: Maverick’s nominations over the Russian oligarch’s co-financing of the film. This raises several questions.
First, while co-financing by Rybolovlev is likely, New Republic’s internal financial flows are difficult to trace. Second, there are allegations that Rybolovlev influenced the content of “Maverick” via New Republic. The film aims to destroy a rogue state’s uranium enrichment plant, and allegations have been made that Rybolovlev’s money prevented Russia from being named a “rogue state.”
That’s not very likely, given that Russia has been out of fashion as a film enemy since the end of the Cold War, and when Top Gun was conceived in 2018 it hadn’t come back into fashion; besides, when everyone thinks of “uranium enrichment” they think of Iran. And thirdly, it raises the question of how far back the boycott of Russian funds should go.
It’s extremely unlikely, for practical reasons alone, that the Academy will do anything about Top Gun. The only thing left for her to do was to completely repeat the vote – this time without the Cruise film; but that was completed on Wednesday, and the counting of the 9,500 votes by the auditing company PricewaterhouseCoopers is in full swing.
In 2022, the Oscar carpet was still red
Quelle: picture alliance / Geisler-Fotopress / Dave Bedrosia
The Academy faces another voting problem with its two new categories “OscarsFanFavorite” and “OscarsCheerMoment”; one allows fans to vote for their favorite movie via Twitter and the other for their favorite movie moment. It’s an attempt to tie young people to the Oscars broadcast, who have been concerned for years about falling viewership. Both awards could go to Zack Snyder this year for his film Army of the Dead and for scenes from his film Justice League.
That – and the voting pattern – seemed suspicious to some, and an analysis of the “Tweetbinder” tracking program now seems to confirm the suspicion: the most active voters are said to have been bots, not human tweeters. The presentation of the audience prizes on Sunday night could actually reward clever bots.
The academy could also run into trouble with one of its award presenters, Chinese martial artist and actor Donnie Yen (“Ip Man”). Thousands of Hong Kongers have signed a petition demanding the expulsion of Yen, who has repeatedly described protests over China’s erosion of democracy in the former crown colony as “riots.”
The mystery of Johnnie To
By the way, the mystery of Johnnie To, one of Hong Kong’s most famous directors, comes to mind. To was a member of this year’s Berlinale jury, he also came on stage for the Bear Awards, but just sat silently in a corner of the sofa – while all the other jurors went to the microphone and announced prizes. To was obviously not ill. Could it have been a silent protest against the award ceremony?
But these are tricky problems. Let’s dedicate ourselves to questions of carpet taste. The new color scheme, it was learned, is aimed at a “day and night look” and the neutral champagne tone is suitable for events at both times of the day. And it is also animal-friendly, because red (more precisely: purple) is obtained from the secretion of the purple snail. At least it was once, with the ancient Greeks, the inventors of the red carpet.