Parasite wins Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars, but what does it mean going forward?

Parasite, directed by the supremely talented and creative Bong Joon Ho, is a South Korean black comedy thriller, and last night became the first foreign film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Firstly, we at Wayside Trinity would like to say a massive congratulations to the whole cast and crew, especially Bong Joon Ho, for the massive result.

We may review this film in full at a later date, but for now I would like to discuss the implications, and potential ripple effect, this film will have on awards ceremonies, and cinema in general, going forward.

First up is Awards Ceremonies. Now Parasite has won Best Picture, we may in future see more international films, previously categorised as foreign language films, take centre stage at film events, the biggest of them all being The Academy Awards, or more commonly referred to as the Oscars. Up until now the Best Picture award went to English speaking films, most of which were made by British or American filmmakers, with some exceptions. What is certain is that this decision to reward the ingenuity and originality of Parasite was not simply that of it being the best film, while that is arguably the case, but to make a statement of how the Academy wants to move forward.

The best outcome would be for the Best Picture award to consider any film made that is worthy, whether it is a Eastern film or Western film, and award what it thinks is the best film in the world. This may be to broad to be possible, but with the latest win, its become at the very least a possibility.

Second is Cinema in general. Audiences have become too accustomed to watching exclusively English speaking films. In the majority of cases, when foreign films are even mentioned general audiences switch off due to the idea of having to multi task with the reading of subtitles and watching of the film/movie. It becomes a chore in their minds to watch these films. Yeah, there are a lot of people who do watch and enjoy foreign films all the same as English speaking films, us included, but not everyone is as open as we are.

Parasite winning, among all of the other incredible reasons it is game changing, will open doors for audiences to go out and see foreign films. I mean, it has got a domestic release just like any other film, and the popularity of it, and its director, now will introduce audiences to another side of Cinema. And linking back to the previous point, going forward, we can hope to see plenty more foreign films not only in Cinemas, but representing Cinema at the awards shows.

Do not underestimate the importance of Parasite’s win on February 9th, for it will go down in History for the right reasons, and may just change Cinema as we know it.