“Parasite” was the first movie not in English to win best film. It also won best director, best international film and best original screenplay.
It was a historic night for ‘Parasite.’
In a historic victory that highlighted the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ scramble to diversify its voting ranks following the outcry over #OscarsSoWhite, the South Korean thriller “Parasite” won best picture — the first foreign-language film to do so — and collected three other trophies on Sunday night, including one for Bong Joon Ho’s directing.
“Parasite,” a genre-defying tale of class warfare, allowed voters to simultaneously embrace the future — Hollywood may finally be starting to move past its overreliance on white stories told by white filmmakers — and remain reverential to decades-old tradition: Unlike some other best-picture nominees, “Parasite” was given a conventional release in theaters.
“I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now,” Kwak Sin Ae, who produced “Parasite” with Bong, said as she accepted the Oscar for best picture. No film from South Korea had previously been nominated for Hollywood’s top prize.
The seismic win for “Parasite,” with its predominantly Asian cast, capped an Academy Awards ceremony that accentuated the importance of inclusion at every possible turn.
In honoring “Parasite,” voters slowed the rise of Netflix, which entered the 92nd Academy Awards with a field-leading 24 nominations but left with only two prizes. It was a rebuke, perhaps, to the streaming giant for spending a sultan’s ransom to campaign for votes and for largely bypassing theaters with its films. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman,” relentlessly hyped by Netflix as one of the best films of the decade, was shut out on Sunday
“Parasite” won four Oscars, the most for any film.
