Oscars 2020: 'Parasite' Best Picture speech wins hearts, director Bong Joon-ho lauded for letting women speak
In an iconic moment in Oscar's history, the Bong Joon-ho South Korean film 'Parasite' took home the biggest award of the night — Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards — and that wasn't their only win for the night.
Earlier in the night, they also bagged the 2020 Oscar for the Best International Feature, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director. So when it was time for Joon-ho to take the stage for the fourth time after the final and most prestigious award of the night was announced, he did the unthinkable. Taking the road less traveled, Joon-ho let the women in his crew take the mic for the acceptance speech.
"I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now," said 'Parasite' producer Kwak Sin-ae as the film's cast and crew took center stage to celebrate the first-ever win by a non-English film. When Kwak Sin-ae was almost done speaking, the teleprompter urged the people on stage to wrap up as their allotted time for delivering the acceptance speech was about to end. But then the audience did something even more wholesome and cheered for the cast to be given that extra time to finish their acceptance speech and what a win it was.
Another leading lady from the film — Hye-jin Jang stepped up to take the mic and paid tribute to her director, complimenting his "crazy hair, the way he talks, the way he walks, and especially the way he directs". But as the women of 'Parasite' earned all the cheers from the audience, people sitting at home couldn't stop cheering for the two and the South Korean film industry in general for letting the women in their industry make statements about their sentiments.
"South Korean filmmakers let the women speak on stage. #Parasite #BongJoonHo #Oscars2020," wrote a fan on Twitter, while another one cheered the film and tweeted: "PARASITE!!!!!!! PARASITE!!!!!! EVERYONE DEMANDED THAT THEY PROLONG THE ACCEPTANCE SPEECH!!!!! I'M SO HAPPY!!!"
And others noted their shock and disbelief — all for the right reasons and tweeted: "Overjoyed, disbelief, proud. These words make up only a fragment of the extreme happiness that filled me tonight. Thank you @TheAcademy for taking the step to go beyond racial barriers in order to award those who truly deserve it. #ParasiteForBestPicture #Oscars2020."
Even director Ava Duvernay took note of the iconic win and tweeted: "MASSIVE! HISTORIC! LANDMARK! PARASITE! The world is big and it is beautiful and films from everywhere deserve to be on that stage winning @TheAcademy’s highest honor. This is wonderful and right. #Oscars."
Also, giving the movie its due recognition, journalist Scott Feinberg reminded his followers on Twitter, "Reason for hope in the world: When the British film HAMLET won the best picture Oscar in 1949, becoming the first non-American film to win, people in the room gasped and booed. Today, people were almost uniformly overjoyed for PARASITE, the first non-English-language winner ever."