It was obvious that The Revenant would win the People's Choice Award since Hollywood movies were created to satisfy the audience.
Even though The Revenant was meant for the Academy Awards, Kazir made sure that the audience would also like the movie.
This movie was actually different from the usual themes that Kazir filmed. His filmography was mostly about Comedies, Actions, and Horror(His first three movies that he already forgot.)
The Revenant was more on Adventure and Drama, where a man tried to survive in a harsh environment.
Thankfully, Kazir knew what to do and he produced a great movie, he believed so. The fact that the movie won the People's Choice Award was enough to satisfy his ego.
Besides, the protagonist of his movie was none other than Tom Cruise, the man himself. Their tag team was enough to secure the win.
Their winning in the Toronto International Film Festival found its way to newspapers and people realized that the great director Grey actually filmed another movie for this year.
The guy had fans all over North America and they were excited to watch his movie. All of Kazir's movies were interesting and they knew that the director won't let them down.
Well, Kazir never had a flop movie since 1995. All of his movies were successful and profitable.
After winning the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award, the team intended to fight and make sure that the movie would receive awards at the Golden Globes.
Too bad because the Berlin International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, and Venice International Film Festival already ended and their movie could only participate in the Toronto International Film Festival.
Well, the crew sighed in relief since their movie won an award at this film festival. Winning an award was a requirement to get nominated for the Oscars.
Eligibility Requirements to get nominated in Oscars(Source: Google):
1) The film must have won a qualifying film festival award.
OR
2) The film must have completed a weeklong theatrical run in a commercial theater of a qualifying metro area (LA County, New York City, the Bay Area, Chicago, Miami, or Atlanta).
In addition, the film must have been released for public exhibition between January 1 and December 31 of the previous year.
The Revenant was already eligible and it all just depends on the members of the Academy if they would vote for the movie to get nominated.
And for that, Salvatore Barlowe and Pat Kingsley already prepared a plan for PR(Public Relations).
Both Kazir and Tom were ready to spend money just to get their respective Awards. Because honestly, the only way to get nominated for Oscars was by using money and connection.
And yes, the members of the Academy could be bribed but people don't usually give them money. They gave the members gifts instead.
You know, the Academy had to keep the image that they were partial and fair. They want to keep the artistry of Hollywood, although they cannot help but be biased sometimes.
Another fact was that Tom Cruise and Kazir Grey were actually members of the Academy.
The Academy's membership process is by sponsorship, not application. Candidates must be sponsored by two Academy members from the branch to which the candidate seeks admission. Additionally, Academy Award nominees are automatically considered for membership and do not require sponsors. (Google)
Since both of them got nominated, they were automatically members of the Academy. And yes, they could vote for themselves and their movie.
However, their two votes were not enough to secure nominations. In the first place, there were more than 9000 Academy members so two votes didn't matter at all.
So yeah... Your vote doesn't matter at all, so stop voting, ahem.
Anyway, the first hurdle and their movie got the requirements to get nominated.
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September and October were relaxing months for Kazir. What he did in September was attend the 12-day film but everything after that was relaxing.
He was not busy since he already finished most of his jobs. He sometimes visited the company but most of the time, he spent his days with Angelina who was not busy just like him.
Of course, the Big Six still found their way to annoy him. Most of them wanted to talk to him about Grey Pictures and if they would agree with their proposals.
So yeah, he was getting courted by the giant studios and Kazir was waiting for the best option. He knew that the right moment would come and he just had to wait.
So far, after evaluation, the net worth of Grey Pictures surged up to 7.5 billion dollars.
So 30% of his company shares was equivalent to $2.25 billion. The giant studios could afford it but it was something that could also hurt them.
In a way, this was also a gamble for them. The difference was that the chances of them winning once they acquired Grey Pictures were very high.
Just like that, October 31, 2002, arrived and the premiere of The Revenant had come. The premiere night was set in TCL's Chinese Theatre (colloquially referred to as the Grauman's Theatre).
Since it was Halloween, some of the audiences were wearing costumes and it made the event interesting.
The cast of the movie waved their hands, standing on the red carpet. The cast of the movie was very few, it didn't even reach 20 actors.
Despite having few cast, many celebrities attended the premiere to support the movie. People such as Liam Neeson, Pedro Pascal, and Matt Damon showed up as guests.
Not only that, many critics and some members of the Academy showed up to watch the movie. They received invitations, of course.
In fact, the critics didn't only receive invitations, they also received money. Obviously, to promote the movie and make sure that The Revenant would have a positive reputation.