The South Korean comedy Parasite captured the Oscar for best picture of 2019, making history as the first foreign language film to win Hollywood’s most-coveted award.
Bong Joon Ho, who made the film, was crowned best director on Sunday at the 92nd Academy Awards in Hollywood, another first. His film also captured Oscars for best original screenplay and top international picture.
Read: TechCentral’s top 10 movies of 2019
The victory was a defining moment in the globalisation of Hollywood, which had previously favoured homegrown films over foreign-language fare. With Asian directors increasingly grabbing the spotlight — and the region poised to be home to the world’s top movie market — Parasite is a harbinger for the industry.
“I’m ready to drink tonight,” Bong said, when accepting his best director award. The surprise win recalled the 2017 win for Moonlight, a little-seen art-house picture. Parasite has generated just US$35-million in US box office sales, though it’s collected $165-million in all thanks to foreign markets.
Parasite explores class differences with the tale of an unemployed family that entrenches itself in the life of a wealthy clan. The win for a foreign film is a break from tradition at a time when the motion picture academy is under fire for failing to diversify its ranks and awards. It’s also a blow for Netflix, which aggressively campaigned for many of the night’s top awards.
The award victory is certain to add to the windfall for its US distributor Neon and possibly Hulu. Hulu signed a deal with Neon in 2017 to distribute its titles after their theatrical release. Neon has since become a powerhouse. It was also behind Honeyland, which was nominated for two Oscars this year, and I Tonya, which won an Oscar in 2018 for Allison Janney’s performance.
Showdown
The Oscars played out as a showdown between old Hollywood and new. Netflix garnered the most nominations of any studio, with 24, and spent heavily promoting its two best-picture hopefuls this year — Marriage Story and The Irishman. Made by Martin Scorsese, The Irishman failed to win a single award after being nominated 10 times.
Netflix itself grabbed only two Oscars — for the documentary American Factory and for Marriage Story, which scored an award for supporting actress Laura Dern.
Still, the ceremony was a showcase for new faces — like Bong and Taika Waititi, who made Jojo Rabbit and is part Maori.
The academy has been criticised in recent years for the lack of diversity in its ranks and nominations. This year, not a single female was nominated for directing, and 19 of 20 acting nominations went to to white performers.
As a result, diversity became an early topic on stage, starting with the opening number, when actress and singer Janelle Monae called out the lack of female representation. Immediately after, presenters Steve Martin and Chris Rock delivered barbs in an opening exchange that criticised the slow progress.
The awards for Bong — who largely spoke through a translator — and Waititi provided a counterweight. Waititi won best adapted screenplay in his tale about a German family that hides a Jewish girl in World War 2. His father is of Maori descent and he dedicated his award for best adapted screenplay to indigenous children who want to be artists.
Other big winners included Sony, which took home four awards, including for costumes in Little Women and a best supporting actor prize for Brad Pitt in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Joaquin Phoenix took home the top acting prize for his performance in Joker, while Renee Zellweger won best actress for her role as Judy Garland in Judy.
Netflix wasn’t the only streaming service targeting awards. The Amazon.com-distributed film Les Miserables was nominated for one Oscar in the best international feature category. Founder Jeff Bezos looked on from the audience — and withstood a handful of jokes about his great wealth and divorce from Rock.
1917, which was the favourite for best picture, ended up garnering mostly technical Oscars, including statuettes for cinematography, sound mixing and visual effects. — Reported by Kelly Gilblom, (c) 2020 Bloomberg LP
