The dream Awards Season campaign for Bong Joon-ho and “Parasite” came to an emphatic end tonight at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, where the film ended up winning four of the six awards it was nominated for, including becoming the first foreign language film ever to win Best Picture!
Bong Joon-ho was on stage to receive the first award of the night for the film, Best Original Screenplay, along with his writing partner Han Jin-won, which became the first Oscar award in history for a Korean film. He was then back on stage to collect the award in the newly-retitled Best International Feature Film.
The surprise came later on in the awards ceremony as Bong beat favourite Sam Mendes to win Best Director. Humility personified, the man thanked and acknowledged his fellow nominees Martin Scorsese for the influence his work has had, Quentin Tarantino for championing Bong’s work over the years and Sam Mendes and Todd Phillip for their brilliant output.
The icing on the cake came at the very end, as Hollywood legend Jane Fonda announced “Parasite” as the Best Picture, making it the first foreign language film ever to win the award.
History well and truly was written tonight. What a glorious night for Asian cinema, what a historic night for Korean cinema! We, like Bong Joon-ho, are now ready to drink tonight until the morning.
