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At World Wide Motion Pictures, we have taken great interest in finding films made outside the Hollywood system, especially those made outside the United States, and striving to make them a more prominent component of the nation’s popular culture. Whenever such a film does come along, we take great pleasure in seeing the film do what so few others of its kind have, and garner significant recognition on both a critical and commercial level. Neon’s “Parasite,” a South Korean film from director Bong Joon-ho, is the latest major foreign film to take the world – and especially Hollywood – by storm, and with its most recent wins at the Critics Choice Awards, it shows no signs of stopping.
On Sunday January 12th, 2020, “Parasite” was honored with two awards at the Critics Choice Awards ceremony. As many had anticipated, the film garnered a nod for Best Foreign Language Film, coming out on top among such films as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” from France and “Atlantics” from Senegal. What was perhaps a noticeably larger shock came when Joon-ho, tying with “1917” director Sam Mendes, was named the recipient of the Best Director award; in doing so, Joon-ho triumphed over such Hollywood legends as Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese.
Upon accepting his award for Best Director, Joon-ho, aided by his Korean-English translator, expressed his gratitude to be included among such a wide array of acclaimed talents. “What makes me happier is just being nominated with the fellow other amazing directors,” Joon-ho stated, “they’re all directors that I love so much, thank you.”
In addition to those two wins, “Parasite” was also nominated in five other categories: Best Acting Ensemble, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design, Best Editing, and the most prestigious title of them all, Best Picture.
Given the Hollywood award associations’ long-held preference for films made here in the United States, it’s rare for a foreign film to break out as a major contender for awards apart from the token Best Foreign Language Film award. For “Parasite” to not only gain as many award nominations as it has in a variety of categories, but to also successfully garner wins in these categories, is a sign that the film is strong enough to stand a chance among talents and work often expected to succeed during the award season, almost all of which are American or English-speaking.
These victories are far from the first for “Parasite”, however. Last week also saw “Parasite” take home the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 77th Golden Globe Awards, while also being nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay, adding to a number that is both rare for a foreign film and currently totaling an amount higher than any other film so far in this award season.
As of January 13th, according to the Award Leaderboard on Rotten Tomatoes, “Parasite” currently has a total of 111 award wins from several different awards associations, ranging from local groups like the Los Angeles Film Critics Association to those on a more national level like the National Society of Film Critics. For comparison, “Marriage Story,” which currently holds second place in terms of its number of awards won, has only received 68 wins from these associations. While that’s certainly still a respectable number, the fact that “Parasite” still outpaces its closest competition by a whopping 43 wins shows just how much of an awards giant the South Korean film has become.
To anyone who attended the Cannes Film Festival last year, however, this success is probably not the least bit surprising. Having made its world premiere at the festival, “Parasite” immediately became a favorite among those attending, even going so far as to eventually win the festival’s highest honor, the Palme d’Or. Not only was the film the first from South Korea to receive this accolade, but it had done so through a unanimous vote, the first to do since “Blue is the Warmest Color” in 2013. From the beginning, “Parasite” had proven itself to be a major awards contender, and it has continued to live up to that title in the months since.
The awards season is far from over though, and with the Director’s Guild Awards and especially the 92nd Academy Awards approaching, it’s safe to say that “Parasite” will continue to be a major contender and do what very few, if any, foreign films have achieved as the season gets closer to its conclusion. World Wide Motion Pictures is no stranger to foreign films and their potential for awards; some of the films we have been honored to distribute, including Kazakhstan’s “The Road to Mother” and the French-Chinese co-production “The Nightingale,” have been selected as potential nominees for the Best Foreign Language Film award for their respective countries. To see a foreign film do so well in the award circuit is something we are more than happy to see more of, and we congratulate the cast and crew of “Parasite” for the success they have achieved so far and will continue to achieve as the award season continues.
