The team behind Parasite made history at the 92nd Academy Awards; becoming the very first subtitled movie to win the Best Picture award.
Just that big one award would have been record-breaking, but the tense, darkly humorous South Korean thriller went on to smash all expectations; taking home no fewer than four Oscars including Best Director and Best Screenplay for Bong Joon-ho as well as Best Foreign Language Film, leaving favourite-to-win 1917 trailing behind with three.
However, as executive producer, Miky Lee, took to the Dolby Theatre stage to say a few words after Parasite’s Best Picture win, the stage lights dimmed and instead shone on Jane Fonda who had been due to speak next.
The confusion in the theatre was evident. The dimming of the lights would usually signify the end of a speech, but Lee hadn’t finished speaking.
Fortunately, those in the audience were not about to let Lee’s acceptance speech be cut short in such a disrespectful way.
The famously lovely Tom Hanks and Charlize Theron – who were seated right at the front of the ceremony – instigated a chant to get the stage illuminated once more. And it was potentially the most Hanks-esque display of support I’ve ever seen.
The two stars could be seen shouting, ‘Up! Up! Up! Up!’, repeatedly raising their arms to show they wanted to hear the rest of what Lee had to say. Other stars quickly joined in, and it was clear they weren’t going to give up until the Parasite production team were illuminated once more.
The chant was listened to, and very quickly the lights were back on; greeted by rapturous cheers and applause from the audience.
Lee could be seen smiling as she took up the mic, proceeding to thank director Bong Joon Ho, who had won Best Director earlier that evening:
Hi, everybody. I’d really like to thank director Bong. Thank you for being you, and I like everything about him, his smile, his crazy hair, the way he talks the way he walks and especially the way he directs. But what I really like about him is his sense of humour.
Lee continued:
I really, really, really want to thank our Korean film audience, or moviegoers, who has been really supporting all our movies and never hesitated to give us straightforward opinion on what they feel like their movies.
That made us never be able to be complacent, and [it] keeps pushing the directors, the creators [to] keep pushing the envelopes. And without you, our Korean film audience, we are not here.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Lee is regarded to be the ‘most important mogul in South Korean entertainment’, heading up a $4.1 billion entertainment empire which has helped launch a new generation of filmmakers.
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Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.