‘Parasite’ emerges as big winner at North American film awards

Director Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” is winning a spate of awards in North America and e yes are on whether the film will become the first South Korean film to win the Academy Award in February.

According to Los Angeles Times on Monday, “Parasite” received the best film of the year, best director, and best supporting actor awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on Sunday (local time). The South Korean movie beat Martin Scorsese’s Netflix movie “The Irishman” to receive the top honor. On the same day, the South Korean thriller was also chosen as Best Film and Best Director, as well as Best Foreign Language Film by The Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association, respectively.

“Parasite” earlier won the Best Foreign Language award from the National Board of Review, which is considered a yardstick for measuring the Oscars, and was chosen as the third best movie of 2019 by The New York Times.

Eyes are on whether rave reviews in North America will help Parasite receive nominations for the 77th Golden Globe Awards. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which presents the Golden Globe Awards, will announce Monday the nominees for this year’s Golden Globe Awards, which are considered one of the two major film awards in the U.S. along with the Oscars.

Multiple Hollywood media outlets predicted that “Parasite” will be nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film award. Bong’s 2009 film “Mother” was nominated in the first round of the 67th Golden Globe Awards but did not make the final cut.


Seo-Hyun Lee baltika7@donga.com