What a lovely night for Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite. The critically-acclaimed foreign language film that has been the true darling of this award’s season, came into the night with six Oscar nominations and by the end of the evening, Parasite made history with four big wins.
Parasite definitely had the potential to win the awards that the film ultimately took home but a lot of the ceremonies leading up to Oscars seemed to put most of the shine on Sam Mendes’ 1917. The World War I epic took home the PGA Award, which is a solid indicator of what may end up winning Best Picture at the Oscars and Sam Mendes took home the DGA Award for Best Director, also a strong indicator of who might take the Best Director trophy home come Oscar night. You would not have looked like you didn’t know what you were doing if 1917 was your top choice in these categories on your Oscar pool.
Parasite did land two key wins before bringing it home in several major categories last night. Actors clearly love Parasite, awarding it the Best Ensemble honor at the SAG Awards (and giving it a rousing standing ovation when they ultimately won the prize). A SAG ensemble win isn’t always a sign of things to come at the Oscars. Black Panther won the award the previous year but didn’t take home Best Picture and the same can be said for Hidden Figures, a film that picked up the ensemble win but didn’t win Best Picture the year it was nominated. The win kept Parasite in the game but it wasn’t a total game-changer. The other key win was its win for Best Original Screenplay at the WGA Awards. It was my opinion that Parasite, which is fantastically written I might add, won that award because the front runner for that prize wasn’t nominated because his film wasn’t eligible. That front runner in question was Quentin Tarantino whose Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was largely considered the one to beat for that award come Oscar night.
All I have to say is what a way for Parasite to end its wonderful awards season. Last night the film won Best Picture, Best Director (Bong Joon Ho), Best Original Screenplay (Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won) & Best International Feature. With its Best Picture win, Parasite made history as the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. For me, the wins for Parasite are just the icing on the cake that it’s one of the most provocative films to come out in recent years and it’s refreshing to see the Academy take notice.
1917, which came into the night with ten Oscar nominations, ended up winning three awards but they were all in the technical categories (Best visual effects, cinematography and sound mixing). 1917 is a true technical achievement so it’s not too surprising the film took these awards home.
The acting awards were all in line with how they have been playing out all award’s season. Joaquin Phoenix took home the award for Best Actor for Joker and his acceptance speech was definitely one to remember as he used the platform to speak some hard-hitting truths and he did so elegantly and his moment getting choked up before quoting lyrics by his late brother River Phoenix, provided the most emotional moment of the evening for me. Renee Zellwegger took home her second Oscar (her first was for Best Supporting Actress for Cold Mountain) for her transformative performance in Judy, an award this performance has claimed since she was pegged as the front runner early on during the film’s theatrical release. Laura Dern earned Netflix its first film acting award for her Best Supporting Actress turn in Marriage Story as she has dominated this category all awards season as well. Brad Pitt also scored his first acting Oscar with his Best Supporting Actor win for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, another performer that has been the one to beat in his respective category.
Check out the full list of winners below:
Best Picture
Parasite
(Neon)
A Barunson E&A Production
Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers
Actress in a Leading Role
Renée Zellweger
Judy (LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions)
Actor in a Leading Role
Joaquin Phoenix
Joker (Warner Bros.)
Directing
Parasite (Neon)
Bong Joon Ho
Original Song
“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman (Paramount)
Music by Elton John
Lyric by Bernie Taupin
Original Score
Joker (Warner Bros.)
Hildur Guðnadóttir
International Feature
Parasite
A Barunson E&A Production
South Korea
Makeup and Hairstyling
Bombshell (Lionsgate)
Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker
Visual Effects
1917 (Universal/Amblin Partners)
Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy
Film Editing
Ford v Ferrari (Walt Disney)
Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland
Cinematography
1917 (Universal/Amblin Partners)
Roger Deakins
Sound Mixing
1917 (Universal/Amblin Partners)
Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson
Sound Editing
Ford v Ferrari (Walt Disney)
Donald Sylvester
Actress in a Supporting Role
Laura Dern
Marriage Story (Netflix)
Documentary Short Subject
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) (A+E Networks)
A Grain Media Production
Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva
Documentary Feature
American Factory (Netflix)
A Higher Ground Productions and Participant Media Production
Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert
Costume Design
Little Women
(Sony Pictures Releasing)
Jacqueline Durran
Production Design
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Production Design: Barbara Ling
Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Live Action Short Film
The Neighbors’ Window
A Marshall Curry Production
Marshall Curry
Adapted Screenplay
Jojo Rabbit (Fox Searchlight)
Screenplay by Taika Waititi
Original Screenplay
Parasite (Neon)
Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won
Story by Bong Joon Ho
Animated Short Film
Hair Love (Sony Pictures Releasing)
A Matthew A. Cherry Entertainment/Lion Forge Animation/Blue Key Entertainment Production
Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver
Animated Feature Film
Toy Story 4 (Disney)
Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera
Brad Pitt
Once upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony Pictures Releasing)
