On Sunday night (Feb. 9), the world of cinema erupted in celebration! Parasite from South Korea took four major Oscars (Screenplay, International Film, Directing and Best Picture.) Bong Joon Ho finally did what Taiwan’s Ang Lee (Two-time Oscar Best Director winner for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi) was unable to do in multiple attempts during the past two decades. The Best Picture win for Parasite also set another record, it was the first Cannes Palme d’Or winner to win the Oscar top prize since Marty way back in 1955.
It wasn’t just a triumph for Bong and South Korean cinema. It was also a victory for Asian cinema.
It doesn’t matter that it took 92 years before the Oscars finally fully embraced foreign language films, what matters is that the legacy of influential Asian masters like Japan’s Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, India’s Satjayit Ray and Iran’s Abbas Kiarostami lives on with Oscar winners Bong and Lee taking the charge for the new generation of filmmakers.
The historic Best Picture victory also boosts the hopes and dreams of many Asian actors and filmmakers who are asking for more opportunities to get their stories made with the backing and support of Hollywood’s massive global network.
“I don’t think it’s necessary to separate all the borders and divisions, whether it’s Asia, Europe or the US,” Bong told this writer (through an interpreter) while holding two of his four Oscars when he met the press backstage at the Oscars. “If we pursue the beauty of cinema and focus on the individual charms that each piece has, I think then we will naturally overcome all these barriers.”
Bong added that he considers himself no different from other Asian directors in Hollywood. He citedC whose film The Farewell won Best Picture at the Independent Spirit Awards held the day before the Oscars. “Lulu Wang won the Best Picture so I was so happy with her. I really love her work and, me and Lulu Wang, we just make a movie, yeah. It’s all the same, yeah.”
The Philippine STAR was backstage at the Academy Awards this year and this writer witnessed how the entire media room erupted into a deafening applause (similar to what played out inside the Dolby) when Jane Fonda announced Parasite as the Best Picture winner.
Throughout the evening, the media room was quietly buzzing with anticipation of a possible upset. Normally, the setup is to bring every Oscar winner backstage to do the official photos and quick interview with the press. But when Bong did not go backstage after winning for Best Screenplay, people started wondering what if. And when, after winning the Best International Feature trophy, he still did not show up, the buzz started to grow louder. When Bong won Best Director, journalists started exchanging knowing glances of a wonderful upset ahead. And when he won, pandemonium!
Other journalists started congratulating me. With my Asian features, they may have mistaken me for a Korean but I was not offended — I welcomed it. Bong’s win was mine as well. To see an Asian film win Best Picture was a dream.
“I did once imagine what it would mean to win Best Picture,” Bong remarked during our interview. “To win Best Picture means that this film was voted by the members of the Academy and I realized that that would signal the beginning of a different kind of change for international cinema, not just for Korea. So in that sense, it would have been great to win. We did win!”
Parasite will be adapted by HBO into a mini-series.
Apart from Bong’s historic win, Oscar night went according to script.
Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
Backstage, the actor refused to answer questions about his kids although he mentioned them on stage.
“I’m going to keep that indoors,” he replied to one of the questions about his kids but he added that he would “want them to follow their bliss. You know, follow their passions, whatever they are most interested in.” He added that he would be there to guide them. “They get to try everything on and find what — where their passion lies.”
Brad hopes that this Oscar season won’t be his last. “Well, no. I hope not. I hope I got other (expletive) going on,” he said. “But it has been a really special run. And, again, it’s a community I love and friends that I’ve made over, you know, 30 years and they mean a lot to me, truly.” He added that he will “disappear for a little while now and, you know, get back to making things.”
Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor for Joker but he did not make it backstage.
As expected, Laura Dern, who was celebrating her birthday, won Best Supporting Actress for Marriage Story and she was still visibly excited when she met us backstage.
“Will you help me for a moment?” she asked before we started the interview. She explained that in her shock she “forgot to say thank you to my guides in my life” before naming Peter Levine, Jason Weinberg, Annett Wolf, Kevin Evein and her life-long acting teacher Sandra Seacat. “Now I can have a great night because it’s a little bit of heartbreak when you haven’t thanked all the people who bring you here, you know. So thank you.”
Later on, when she has finally relaxed she joked that she felt like a Barbie in an auction.
Because the media room was huge and the journalists numbered to more than 300, the Academy handed each of the journalists giant number cards and if you want to ask a question, you just raise it and the moderator will call the number.
Taika Waititi, the New Zealand-born director who won Best Adapted Screenplay for the masterful WWII satire Jojo Rabbit, had a great time calling out the numbers himself during his turn at the podium.
In October, during the junket for Jojo Rabbit, I asked Taika how he was preparing for the Oscar season after Jojo Rabbit won the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. He then replied that he would be working in Hawaii to finish a movie and will skip the winter awards season.
Backstage at the Oscars, I reminded him of our interview and asked if he prepared for the Oscars at least and if he was able to thank everyone he wanted to thank.
Ever the funnyman, he had a hilarious response.
“No. You saw my acceptance speech, it was the worst,” he joked. “I did remember everyone’s name, I just don’t want to go up there and actually say lots of people’s names. That seems like a waste of time. Because why should I? I did all the typing. No one else did it. And all the words came from my head. So, bottom line, I’m not going to thank my lawyer for that. I love him. He’s done great stuff for me, he got me a bloody good deal on THOR: Love and Thunder but he didn’t type anything on Jojo Rabbit. So, you know, as far as acceptance speeches go, I think mine was probably the most truthful speech that anyone’s ever given. I think we can all agree on that.”
If Taika got the most laughs that night backstage, Renee Zellweger gets props for being the most thoughtful.
Renee, who won Best Actress for her tour-de-force performance in the Judy Garland biopic Judy, met us for the interview some 30 minutes after the Oscar telecast ended on TV.
“Thank you, guys. Thanks so much. And good luck!” she told us after we congratulated her. “My goodness, what a busy night for you all. I know you have deadlines, so good luck with those.”
Our interview with her was rushed because she was expected to show up at the Governor’s Ball immediately after but she did not forget to emphasize that her award was more for the memory of Judy Garland than it was for her.
“This is about this wanting to tell that story and to celebrate Judy Garland and to shine a light on, perhaps, the nuances of the circumstances of her life, which people dismiss as tragic,” she declared.
“We just appreciate the importance of her legacy and who she was as a person and we all wanted to celebrate her.”
She added, “It really was a celebration. We just came to work every day. You could feel the love, the love for Ms. Garland, and that was what we had hoped.”
On some level, Renee’s win is as triumphant and memorable as the historic win for Parasite. Her career has been on a downward spiral and Hollywood has seemingly forgotten her until she returned with a landmark performance that just could not be ignored like the incisive social commentary infused in Parasite that latches on to anyone who watches the film.