January 2006, Los Angeles, CA, USA

  It had been so long since I had won a major award that I had almost fotten the feeling of winning anything substantial. My st award worth talking about was a Tony, and that was nearly four years ago. I 't really describe the feeling in words, but I felt like I was on top of the world. While the Golden Globes don't guarantee an Oscar win, they certainly mean that I've bee a serious tender for the award now.

  "Troy to Earth!" Mum called out to me. "e on, son, pay attention. The ad break is over. We are nearly at the end here."

  "Sorry," I smiled cheekily at her before looking back at the stage, where Hiry Swank had just takeage in a beautiful bck dress.

  "Here are the nominees for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama," she announced before reading the list of names aloud.

  "Philip Seymour Hoffman – [Capote] as Truman Capote

  Russell Crowe – [derel Man] as James J. Braddock

  Terrence Howard – [Hustle & Flow] as DJay

  Heath Ledger – [Brokeback Mountain] as Ennis Del Mar

  Troy Armitage – [The Perks of Being a Wallflower] as Charlie Kelmeckis."

  I didn't have any idea who would win here. I must not have seen who won in the inal timeline. Maybe I remembered [Brokeback Mountain]'s Oscar loss because it created a troversy, but other than that, I had no idea who would take the award here. I truly believed it should be Heath Ledger. He was eoo good. I wouldn't mind Philip Seymour Hoffman as a sedary choice either.

  As long as it's not that asshole Russell Crowe, I'm fih anyone on the list.

  "And the Golden Globe goes to," Hiry Swank looked down at the envelope to build suspense before looking up and reading, "Philip Seymour Hoffman for [Capote]."

  I stood up with the rest of the crowd as one of the great actors of his geion won an award. That's the biggest problem with being a younger actor who has already wnition for his work. Unless your performance is a css apart, they rarely give you an award over someone older who may not have received much reition earlier in their career.

  Now only two awards remained – Best Picture Drama a Picture Musical/edy.

  Renée Zellweger walked up to the stage and said, "You all saw the nominees for Best Motion Picture Musical or edy throughout the night. Once again, here are the nominees:

  [Walk the Line]

  [Mrs. Hendersos]

  [Pride & Prejudice]

  [Echoes of You]

  [The Squid and the Whale]."

  The enviro was tense around the table. This was the moment. This was the st award we had any hope of winning. There was no way in hell we were winning the other award when [Brokeback Mountain] was in tention. I crossed my fingers uhe table, hoping for a miracle of some sort. I khat [Walk the Line] was a stronger film, with both of its lead actors bagging a Globe, whereas her Emily nor I had won. That alone made their prospects stronger.

  Renée Zellweger opehe envelope. "And the Golden Globe goes to… [Echoes of You]."

  "Yes!" Our eable shouted in unison as Dad, Mum, Evan, and I stood up and hugged as a family. Soon enough, Emily and Stephen Daldry also came over, and I hugged them individually before disengaging and walking to the stage with Dad. Uhe Oscars, the eeam of the winning picture doesn't go on stage at the Globes—only the producers. And since Dad and I were the only producers of the film, we were the oo step up.

  Because I had already spoken twice, I let Dad speak first.

  "Thank you to the Hollywood Fn Press for this great honor for our film, which both of my boys made together with their utmost devotion. So if anyone deserves this award, it's Troy and Evan."

  That's my father. Always downpying his role. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to make this film at all—at least not this year. I was utterly spent after produg [Brick] and [The Perks of Being a Wallflower].

  "My wife Kathy," Dad tinued, "I love you more than anything. Thank you for being the amazing woman you are and the foundation that keeps our family strong. To our entire cast and crew—Stephen Daldry, Emily, Rihanna, Robert, Paul—I'm fetting a lot of names, but I'll defihank everyone personally soon enough. Over to you, Troy."

  Dad stepped bad handed me the mic. I didn't hesitate even once before speaking.

  "For some reason, I didn't expect to win anything tonight, so thank you for this great honor."

  And then I stepped back. I had already spoken enough tonight. I o get off the stage. Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be because soon we were in front of repain.

  This time, the Globes anizers had learned from their mistakes and had us wait until the st award was given before interviewing. I was nominated in that category as well. This time, my predi came true—sure enough, [Brokeback Mountain] won that award.

  The whole meism is holy a little tiring, but it felt good heless. I used to think that awards like the Golden Globes were worthless, which I still do to some degree. But now I realize that it doesn't matter. If they help improve the business of our film, it's definitely worth it. After all, [Echoes of You] is still iers, and the three Globes we won for it will easily recoup our iment in promoting the film for the awards circuit.

  Now it was time to party.

  (Break)

  (Time Skip - One month)

  February 2006, Berlin, Germany

  I walked fidently on the red carpet as the numerous fshes went by nearby. Last month had been some of the busiest times of my life. Only two days after the Golden Globes, I had flown back to London to start shooting [Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]. All the while, I was still doing interviews with reporters over the phone and even in London about my potential Oscar win. Thankfully, Rian Johnson had adjusted the shoot so that only the ses of mihat didn't require too much preparation were filmed first, like Quidditch or the Pensieve ses with Michael Gambon taking Harry to Tom Riddle's past. Those were shot in front of a greens and barely required any ag talent or too many lines.

  And now, here I was in Berlin, for another one of my movies—[Little Miss Sunshihe producers and directors had pnned well in advao s the film at the Sundance Film Festival, but for some reason, it wasn't able to secure admission to the petition. Jonathan and Valerie were fih just premiering it there, but I didn't agree with that. I set Dad on the job, and here we were in Berlin a month ter, peting in the film festival.

  Europe had three major film festivals—es, Venice, and Berlin. es is held in May, Veni September, and Berlin in February. So obviously, I chose the ohat was closest.

  "I still don't uand why we are here," Dad muttered tiredly after the red carpet walk was over. "I thought we'd work on the sixth [Harry Potter] film and you'd sell this film directly to Paramount as per yreement and be doh it."

  There's a reason I chose to e to Berlin rather than premiering it at Sundance or opting for a direct release of the film. That's because [Little Miss Sunshine] is an award-friendly movie that was so good, it could have even wo Picture. In the inal timeli didn't wi Picture at the Oscars, for three big reasons—first, it was released early in the year. Award voters prefer movies that are released ter in the year. Sed, it didn't win any major film festival awards. If it had, it would have made it a lot easier to pitch to the award voters. Third, there was a troversy just a year ago about [Crash] winni Picture, another film about real-life issues with dysfunal ensemble characters. Since [Crash] didn't win anything this time, it made sense for the Academy voters not to be so biased.

  My current pn was to release the film first in a major film festival like Berlin and then ter in the year, probably in December. If not, it could impact the earning potential of the movie, because then we'd have to save some marketing funds for award-season promotions. If the movie is released te in the year, the taigns run simultaneously, thus saving a lot of costs.

  That's something I learhe hard way while promoting [Echoes of You] and [The Perks of Being a Wallflower].

  Before I could say anything to Dad, a female reporter caught up to me and pced a mi front of me.

  "Troy, how do you feel about your Osominations this year? Do you pn to domihe Oscars as well, like you did with the Golden Globes?"

  Oh yes, my films had garnered a ton of Osominations as well.

  (Break)

  AN: Sorry for the short chapter. For some reason, I ran out of ideas to tihe chapter, so I decided to end it there. The one is longer. As a bonus I added a crack se at the end. Don't take it seriously. I wrote it as a joke.

  Bonus Se (Just for fun, not part of the .)

  "And the Golden Globe goes to," Hiry Swank looked down at the envelope to build suspense before looking up and reading, "Troy Armitage for [The Perks of Being a Wallflower]."

  I got up cockily and accepted the award from Hiry Swank. "Thank you to a bunch of old geezers fivihis award. I don't think I was better than Terrence Howard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, or Heath Ledger. Especially Heath Ledger. I was better than Russell Crowe, but then again, even Hugh Hefner may be a better actor than Russell Crowe for all we know."

  The croed in surprise as they heard that.

  Russell Crowe got up from his seat, gring daggers in my dire. Theook a step forward, then another, and soon he rinting at me, his fist raised to punch me. Before he could, I swept his feet from under him and judo-flipped him dowage.

  "Go and watch that South Park episode, you madman. I'm the boy-who-judo'd. Hi-ya!" I struck a artial arts pose to drive my point home.

  The audieed in appuse when they saw that.

  "Thank you! Thank you! As I was saying, is the best talk show host! Go watch his show!"

  ___________________________________

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