No one in Hollywood was probably more surprised at the surprise Best Picture win for “Parasite” last night than the film’s director, Bong Joon-ho. After picking up a history-making award for Best Original Screenplay and the obvious Best International Feature Film trophy, the director admitted that he was probably done for the night and was going to start drinking. But then he won two more times, including Best Director and the aforementioned top prize. And in the post-show press conference (via THR), Bong held nothing back with his surprise.
“It’s really fucking crazy!” said Bong, without the need of a translator.
While he clearly couldn’t say that during his various acceptance speeches, it’s obvious when you saw the filmmaker speak last night, he still hasn’t fully accepted that “Parasite” wasn’t only a winner, but the night’s biggest story.
And as we know, the Best Picture win for “Parasite” marks the first time a film not in the English language has won the top prize. This begs the question about the future of American acceptance of foreign-language films, which has always been seen as a tough mountain to climb for international filmmakers, mainly due to the Western audience’s disinterest in reading subtitles.
However, when asked about that last night, Bong said that he feels technology has bridged that gap quite a bit already, and he hopes that “Parasite” is the first of many international films to take home Best Picture.
“People are already overcoming those barriers through streaming, YouTube, and social media and the environment that we currently live in,” explained the filmmaker. “I think we all are connected. So I think naturally we will come to a day when a foreign-language film or not doesn’t really matter. A foreign-language film winning [Best Picture] won’t be much of an issue moving on, hopefully.”
You can watch the full post-Oscars press conference below.
You can follow our full coverage of the 2020 Oscars here.