Congratulations. Nobody really expected Parasite to win Best Picture, though a lot of people thought it should win (evidently enough to vote for it).
I would say it was the best of the Best Picture nominees I’ve seen. (I haven’t seen 1917 (yet), Little Women, Marriage Story, or Ford vs Ferrari.) It was certainly by far the most interesting and original of the nominees. (Jo Jo Rabbit was also quite original, but it didn’t have the complexity or emotional range of Parasite.)
I saw all of the Best Picture nominees. I was kind of pulling for Jo Jo Rabbit, but thought Little Women might win. Was very surprised Parasite won even though I loved the movie.
The problem with that is, who knows how many people would then claim, “Parasite isn’t really Best Picture as it lost to a movie that wasn’t eligible for Best Picture”?
Disagree about the acting; I thought it was a fine ensemble cast. I suppose it’s a strange film but not **that **strange; it’s a genre bending film quite similar to Barton Fink and IMO better executed.
Having a separate category for International Films while allowing them also to be eligible for Best Picture, creates a quandry (which is shared by Best Animated Film). If you want to recognize non-US film making, you have to carve out a separate category because they can’t compete on equal footing with English-language films. Having their own category allows these movies without a big US audience to be showcased and recognized.
The problem is, if a film is nominated in both categories, it is easier to not give it Best Picture because you can give Best International as a consolation prize. Who knows if Roma might have beaten Shape of Water if the voters didn’t have the option to vote for both? On the other hand, if a film does manage to win both, it kind of feels like double-dipping.
I am NOT arguing that foreign films shouldn’t be eligible for BP. I don’t really have a good solution until foreign language films get the same distribution and visibility in the US as English language films, which is probably never.
I don’t think we’ve had an animated film be a serious Best Picture contender, although a few have been nominated. It’s the same situation.
Beauty and the Beast (1991) was nominated for BP, back when there were only 5 nominees and there was no Best Animated category. That’s pretty serious.
As fantastic (and amazing) as the news was the PARASITE took 4 major Oscars (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, International Film), the even better news is that this wasn’t a random left-field event but the result of some marvelous long-gestating trends in the Academy recently.
Last year, Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director for ROMA, the first time a foreign-language film ever won that category (and Pawel Pawlikowski was one of the other 4 nominees, for the Polish COLD WAR). In the 7 years before that, 6 of the winners were directors who got their starts in foreign-language film industries before migrating to do the periodic Hollywood film.
And the most amazing thing is that, unlike the nominated film directors in the 60s & 70s who were almost exclusively European (most notably Fellini & Bergman), films and filmmakers from Latin America and Asia (which have traditionally had a harder time penetrating the US awards sphere) have been the most prominently represented this last decade.
So this wasn’t just a unique exception, but a movement with real momentum which now has been given an official seal of approval that there is no barrier that can’t be breached, no category off the table. So I really do hope to see more of this to come in the future.
As for the official tallies from that night. Oscars won:
4 - PARASITE
3 - 1917
2 - FORD V FERRARI, JOKER, ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Plus wins for Best Picture nominees JOJO RABBIT, LITTLE WOMEN and MARRIAGE STORY. So sharing the wealth was the final walkaway, and a pretty fair one to these eyes (even if I don’t agree on all of the choices).
Which I’m certain is what has happened in the past on occasion (ROMA and CROUCHING TIGER being the ones who probably came closest to getting the top prize).
So that will always be an inherent danger and likely outcome, but we know now that it needn’t be and hopefully people will feel free to give more foreign-language films a chance on their ballots, not just in pic but hopefully in some other categories, too.
Crouching Tiger had actual Best Picture buzz for sure and I was disappointed when it lost.
Last year, Roma was definitely favored to win, and it was actually a bit of a surprise when Green Book won instead (and Spike Lee, for one, was pissed that Green Book won).