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There’s certainly no shortage of liberalism and social conscience on display at the awards ceremony.

But this change won’t happen overnight, and it might need an additional push from within. Perhaps the academy is beginning to understand that it is not about “Hollywood” versus “foreign movies”, but about promoting good films, no matter where they come from. EPA-EFE/Ringo ChiuĪfter the success of Okja, Bong returned home with a clear intention to keep making movies that foreground Korean culture and social dynamics. Triumph at last: Bong Joon-ho with his Oscar. Both were beautiful to look at, with great production values and a fantastic cast – but they lacked the Korean flavour which gives Parasite its appealing “local roots” or “otherness”, depending on who’s looking. He has made two films in English: Snowpiercer (2013), a dystopian sci-fi movie about the aftermath of a climate change experiment gone wrong and Okja (2017) about a girl who befriends and tries to rescue a genetically modified “super-pig”. This is what makes Bong a bit special: he has felt the lure of Hollywood – but is firmly rooted in his own culture as well. Roma: Mexican film industry blooms with Oscar nominations a century after its origins in the Chihuahua desert Iñárritu is, of course, now most famous for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015).

This, and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Amores Perros (2001), marked the emergence of the New Mexican cinema of the 2000s. So, while to many people who know Cuarón as the director of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004) Children of Men (2006) and Gravity (2013), for me he will always be the director of Y Tu Mama También (2003). We’ve become used to seeing successful foreign directors lured by the big Hollywood studios. South Korean directors have made many great films over the past three decades – Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy (2004), Kim Jee-woon’s I saw the Devil (2011) and, of course, Bong’s Memories of Murder (2004) – which garnered critical acclaim but few significant awards.īut Bong’s films – and those of other prominent international directors – are now available on Netflix – and as more movies are made by and for online streaming platforms, giving audiences access to more diverse sources of content, the academy needs to shift away from its elitist, Hollywood-centric approach which tends to favour English-language movies. As good as it is, it might not even be the best of Bong’s films (it’s his 14th film if you include shorts, the cult movie The Host, and Memories of Murder, which all deserved more attention than they got) and probably not the best South Korean one. This is not just about the significance of Parasite.

Parasite may be the first foreign-language film to win a Oscar for best picture, but now that line has been crossed, there’s every hope this might mark a shift in attitudes to what the film’s director Bong Joon-ho calls the “ one inch tall barrier of subtitles”.Ī lot has been said recently about diversity and inclusion (or lack thereof) in the long history of the Oscars but the success of Roma in 2019, winning three awards including best director for Alfonso Cuarón, suggests an openness – both in the industry and among moviegoers – towards high-quality films in languages other than English.