To quote Ki-taek, Bong Joon-ho is at the top of his class. The South Korean film director and screenwriter has won Best Director at the 2020 Academy Awards for his comedy thriller Parasite. Follow our complete winnerâs list for an update on all the nightâs victories.
In the lead up, Bong was considered a hopeful black horse among critics and analysts. Needless to say, hope prevailed as the filmmaker toppled over stiff competition in Sam Mendes for 1917, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, and Todd Phillips for Joker.
Tonight’s win is a major historical achievement, particularly for Asian filmmaking. Parasite is not only the first South Korean film to receive an Academy Award, but it was the first to receive a nomination in any category. It also won Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. Even more staggering, Bong is only the fourth Asian filmmaker to be noticed by the Academy, following Hiroshi Teshigahara, Akira Kurosawa, and Ang Lee.
Rest assured, this isn’t the end of Parasite. Back in January, news broke that Bong and Adam McKay were teaming up to create an HBO limited series based on the film. As the Oscar winner explained, the idea would be to “expand this film and explore all the ideas that Iâve had from the script writing stage from what could happen in between the scenes through the TV series.”
Elsewhere, the series adaptation of Bong’s 2014 epic, Snowpiercer, will debut on TNT on May 31st. The show stars Jennifer Connelly and Bong serves as executive producer.
Oscars 2020: Bong Joon-ho wins Best Director for Parasite
Michael Roffman
