Why Parasite Will Not Win Best Picture in the 2020 Academy Awards

Parasite, directed by Bong Joon Ho, has been winning big this award season- from Cannes to SAG. The 2020 Academy Awards are approaching and every cinephile is curious if Parasite will continue its momentum and win at the Oscars and if so, which ones? Parasite is nominated for six academy awards: Best Picture, Best Production Design, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay. This is the second time that a foreign language film has been nominated for Best Picture-the most prestigious Oscar award- since the critically acclaimed Netflix film, Roma, directed by Alfonso Cuaron. Can a foreign language film win Best Picture this year?

There is a reason why a foreign language film has never won Best Picture Awards in the history of Oscars. Last October, Vulture interviewed Director Bong  and asked him why Korean films have never been nominated for Oscars, despite their overwhelming influence on cinema over the years. And his answer became instantly viral: “The Oscars are not an international film festival. They’re very local.” This comment shocked the public because The Oscars are deemed to be one of the most highly regarded film competitions in the world. However, they, only considers films that have a theatrical run in a Los Angeles County commercial theaters for a minimum of seven days, which is surprisingly very local. It’s not even state-level. Eligibility for competition extends to a film that runs in one specific county in California.

 Furthermore, the fact they have a category for Foreign Language Film -now titled International Featured Film- implies that The Academy awards consider mostly English films for other categories. In other major film festivals-such as Cannes or Venice, the category is non-existent because they consider films from all around the world for all categories, equally, for they are international film festivals. Granted, The Oscars’ prestige is not under question, but we must admit that they are unexpectedly very “local” and exclusive.

Yet again, The Academy Awards were under fire a month after Bong’s comment, this time in regards to exclusivity; they disqualified Nigerian film, Lionheart, Nigeria’s first submission to Oscars. This was mainly due to its dialogues bring in English. This line of reasoning is absurd and created controversy because Nigeria’s national language is English. After Bong’s comment and the controversy that followed, The Academy renamed changed the category name from “Best Foreign Language Film” to “Best International Film”. Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann, co-chairs of the category have commented on the change: “We have noted that the reference to ‘Foreign’ is outdated within the global filmmaking community… We believe that International Feature Film better represents this category, and promotes a positive and inclusive view of filmmaking.” Despite change in the name of the category, eligibility requirements remain the same, which means nothing really changed.

Overall, the prestige and fame associated with Oscars are somewhat misleading the audience into thinking that it is an inclusive and international film festival. Although Parasite will most likely win International Featured Film category, considering the Academy’s track record, Parasite’s odds of winning Best Picture category do not seem too promising. If it does win, it will be the first foreign language film to win the Best Picture and it will make history; not just when it comes to the festival but Korean Cinema cinema as well. On the other hand, if it does not, Parasite remains a great film regardless; and a loss in this category wouldn’t undermine its brilliance. I guess we’ll find out what happens when the ceremony airs on the 10th of February.