Palme d’Or-winning satire directed by Bong Joon-ho wins the Academy award for the best film not in the English language

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

South Korean satire Parasite has won the best international film Oscar at the 92nd Academy Awards, the first Korean film to do so. It was the hot favourite for the award, but had to defeat contenders including Pedro Almodóvar’s mid-life memoir Pain & Glory, and French social comment drama Les Misérables.

Directed by Bong Joon-ho, Parasite is a comedy-thriller about a hard-up family who infiltrate the lives of a much richer one. It followed Bong’s two successful forays into (mostly) English-language film-making: Snowpiercer and Okja.

Alluding to the category’s change of name – from best foreign-language film to best international film – Bong said: “I applaud and support the new direction this change symbolises.”

He added: “I’m very ready to drink tonight until next morning.”

Parasite won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in May 2019, and since then has been a major presence on the awards circuit, winning a string of prizes including the Bafta and Golden Globe for best film not in the English language.