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Chinese lament Scorsese Oscar snub

Chinese film fans were disappointed that apparent favorite Martin Scorsese was denied the best director Oscar for his 2004 hit “The Aviator,” domestic press said on Tuesday.
/ Source: Reuters

Chinese film fans were disappointed that apparent favorite Martin Scorsese was denied the best director Oscar for his 2004 hit “The Aviator,” domestic press said on Tuesday.

“Many moviegoers in China are dismayed that the Academy Awards have once again snubbed one of the U.S. film industry’s most distinguished members,” the China Daily said.

The best director prize went to Clint Eastwood, whose “Million Dollar Baby” was the big winner at the 77th Oscars, also taking home the best picture, best actress and best supporting actor awards.

“For Chinese fans, Scorsese’s loss hit home,” the newspaper said.

“Scorsese has a sizable fan base in China, and his previously nominated works such as ‘Raging Bull,’ ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘Goodfellas’ have been admired by ardent moviegoers here.”

The award show was broadcast live on satellite television and rebroadcast, slightly edited with added subtitles, on state television in China in the late evening.

“This was truly a very cold night for Marty,” Ye Yundao, a programmer for a southern China-based broadband film distributor, was quoted as saying.

It was the seventh time that Scorsese lost a best director bid, despite making some of modern Hollywood’s most celebrated films.

'Like a sad little boy'An opinion column in the Beijing News was more emotional.

“Seeing such a great director, who has given American films and audiences worldwide so much, stand on stage uncomfortable and alone like a sad little boy, holding an award that did not belong to him, I almost started crying,” the writer said of Scorsese who gave out a humanitarian award in the show.

But the columnist did confess to thinking “The Aviator” did not represent the 62-year-old director’s best work.

“Even Martin’s ardent fans have to admit that his best years ended when he should have received the award in 1990 for ‘Goodfellas’.”

Neither report made mention of Scorsese’s 1997 film “Kundun” that celebrates the life of Dalai Lama, the Tibetan god-king and Nobel peace prize winner whom Beijing considers a separatist