Best Director Ho on future of intl. films at Oscars

At the 92nd Oscars last night, South Korean movie “Parasite” made history as it became the first foreign-language movie to win the award for Best Picture (that’s not formerly the Best Foreign Language Film category). It also bagged the awards for Best Director, which went to Bong Joon Ho, Best International Feature Film (previously the foreign-language film category) and Best Original Screenplay, which went to Ho and Han Jin Won.

Ho said in an interview backstage of the event that he thinks the environment we all live in, YouTube, streaming services and social media connect us and therefore there will be a day when a movie, regardless of whether or not it is a foreign-language movie, winning the Best Picture category at Oscars “won’t be much of an issue.”

“So during the Golden Globes I mentioned the one-inch barrier of subtitles, but I feel like that was already a little late,” said Ho, according to the interview transcript whose link the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences emailed to members of the press and which US and Global News also received. “People were already overcoming these barriers.”

He added, “There are streaming services, YouTube, social media, and the environment that we currently live in, I think we are all connected. So I think naturally we will come to a day when a foreign language film — or not, it doesn’t really matter — a foreign language film winning this won’t be much of an issue later on, hopefully.”

The award is not given to a particular person, but is regarded as an award for the submitting country as a whole. It is South Korea’s first Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The country with most wins in this category is Italy, which has won the award 14 times (so far!).

Image credit: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S.