“Parasite”: From Unexpected Cannes Breakout to Best Picture of 2019

The story of Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film “Parasite” revolves around the lower class Kim family in their efforts to lift themselves out of poverty and into a state of greater financial stability. When the family’s eldest son is hired to be an English tutor for the daughter of the significantly wealthier Park family, the Kims see this as an opportunity. Through the creation of false identities and other forms of manipulation, the Kim family manipulates the Parks into hiring them one by one, with the Park family unaware that their new employees are all related to one another. By the film’s midpoint, the Kims, despite some minor setbacks, have all but made themselves a staple of the Park residence.

Looking at this first portion of the movie, one can easily draw parallels between the initial premise of “Parasite” and the film’s overall performance throughout the 2019-2020 award season, which has resulted in the Film becoming the first foreign film to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

Before “Parasite”, no film made outside the United States and in a language other than English had taken home the Academy’s top prize. Several have been nominated – the most recent being last year’s “Roma” – but none of them have been fortunate enough to be named Best Picture. In many respects, this is no surprise; Hollywood has long devoted the majority of its attention to its own stars and productions, making it difficult for anyone and any film outside the system to have anywhere near as big of an impact. This difficulty for foreign films to break out in the award season (apart from the token Best Foreign Language Film, now titled Best International Feature award) mirrors the plight of the Park family, whose hardest efforts are at first not enough to get them out of poverty.

However, things began to turn around when “Parasite” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. Like the Kim son Ki-woo and the opportunity to tutor for the rich Park family given to him, the film’s submission and release at the Festival provided an opportunity for not just the film itself, but for foreign films in general, to make a name for itself and receive top consideration for awards. The first of such awards came in the form of the Cannes equivalent of Best Picture, the Palme d’Or. Winning through a unanimous vote, “Parasite” immediately began to draw attention, and while the award season was still months away, its status as an awards contender was sealed.

Of course, much like the many obstacles that the Kim family faced when slowly working their way into the Parks’ employment, “Parasite” found its own obstacles in the form of other films, the majority made by Hollywood or at least in the United States, that also premiered at various festivals and received their highest honors. Warner Brothers’ “Joker” earned the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Fox Searchlight’s “Jojo Rabbit” was given the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

And even when those films began to fall out of favor, a late entry into the award circuit, Universal’s “1917” instantly became labeled as the frontrunner for Best Picture of 2019. It began with the Golden Globes, then continued with the Critics Choice Awards, the PGAs, the DGAs, and the BAFTAs – while both films were nominated for Best Picture at all these award ceremonies, “1917” would win all of them, and none would go to “Parasite”. Under these conditions, one would think that “Parasite” would stand little to no chance in taking home the Oscar in the same category.

Yet even without winning Best Picture at any of these ceremonies, the seeds for “Parasite”’s eventual victory had nonetheless been meticulously planted throughout the awards season.

It began at the Critics Choice Awards. In a turn of events that no one had anticipated, there was a tie for Best Director. While “1917” director Sam Mendes was named one of its recipients, so was “Parasite” director Bong Joon-ho. Then came the Screen Actors Guild Awards; despite there not being a single actor from the film nominated for an individual award, the entire cast would win Best Ensemble, the Guild’s Best Picture equivalent. Next, the WGAs, in which “Parasite” beat expected favorite “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”, to which it lost Best Screenplay to at the Golden Globes, and received the award for Best Original Screenplay. This repeated at the following day’s BAFTAs, giving “Parasite” yet another award for its original screenplay. One by one, “Parasite” had been winning smaller, but still quite significant awards, ones that let the world know that it was not yet out of the race for Best Picture.

Then, on Sunday January 9th, everything began to fall into place. Much like when the entirety of the Kim family had infiltrated the employment of the Parks, “Parasite” finally got the upper hand.

It was not an entirely clean sweep for “Parasite” during that night’s Academy Awards ceremony. While it was nominated for Best Production Design and Best Film Editing, the film would lose the former to “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and the latter to “Ford v Ferrari”. However, these losses did little to stop “Parasite”’s momentum. By just the second award, “Parasite” could already be called an Oscar winner, receiving the award for Best Original Screenplay, and as predicted, its Best International Feature Film win came as a surprise to nobody.

But then came the award for Best Director. Many had anticipated that Sam Mendes would win for “1917”, as he had in several of the major award ceremonies before. Needless to say, it came as quite a surprise when the name Bong Joon-ho, who had already accepted “Parasite”’s previous two award wins, was read by presenter Spike Lee and announced as the winner.

Throughout much of Oscar history, a film winning either Best Director or an award for screenwriting (either Best Original Screenplay or Best Adapted Screenplay) was more or less a solid indicator (though by no means a guarantee) that it would win Best Picture. The chances increase for films that win for both directing and screenwriting, so by the time Joon-ho had been named Best Director, there was an increasing likelihood of “Parasite” winning Best Picture. Still, in spite of the success so far, would it be enough? Could the film be more than just the year’s best international feature film and instead be named as the best film in general?

By the time presenter Jane Fonda read the name on the Best Picture envelope, the answer became clear: yes it would. For the first time ever, a foreign language film had been named Best Picture at the Oscars.

While everybody at the ceremony that involved with the production of “Parasite” would take the stage to accept the award, there was no denying that Bong Joon-ho was the primary focus of most people’s attention, especially since through his wins, he too became a history maker. Receiving all four of his film’s awards – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film – Joon-ho tied for the most Oscar wins during a single ceremony. The only other individual with this many wins: Walt Disney. But in spite of “Parasite” shattering the glass ceiling for foreign films, will the future of the Oscars and other award ceremonies be as welcoming to future foreign films?

Given the Academy’s controversial history of representing certain people, groups, and films, one can look at “Parasite”’s Oscar success in one of two ways. While some can see this as a cynical move to ward off any claims that the Academy only pays attention to films made by and centered around white English-speaking individuals, others may see this as only the beginning, viewing “Parasite” as the first in a long string of films made outside the English language to be considered among the best filmmaking has to offer in a given year.

As champions of foreign films and making them more accessible to people throughout America, World Wide Motion Pictures Corporation chooses to look at “Parasite”’s victory with an optimistic outlook. In an increasingly globalized world, it is more important than ever to experience what cinema outside the Hollywood system looks like, and every foreign that manages to break out and make a name for itself should be given as much attention as it deserves. “Parasite” has achieved this in ways that no other foreign film has in the past, and hopefully, we will get to see plenty more foreign films make similar accomplishments in the future.

“I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now,” “Parasite” producer Kwak Sin Ae states in the film’s Best Picture acceptance speech. She couldn’t be more right, and hopefully, it won’t be the last.