Breaking news – South Korean film “Parasite” wins big at 92nd Oscars

South Korean black comedy “Parasite” turned out to be the biggest winner at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood in the western U.S. city of Los Angeles on Sunday night.

Besides nabbing Best Picture, the genre-bending class thriller also won Best Director for Bong Joon-ho, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.

South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho wins Best Director for “Parasite”

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho took home the award for Best Director for the black comedy thriller “Parasite” at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Bong beat out Sam Mendes, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese, and Quentin Tarantino.
Earlier, “Parasite” made history by being the first South Korean film to win Oscar’s Best International Feature Film as well as Best Original Screenplay.

The commercially-viable and adroitly-written drama on the weighty subject of class warfare follows the members of a poor household scheming to become employees of a much wealthier family by posing as unrelated, highly-qualified individuals.

The film was widely considered a front-runner in Oscar race after it won several international trophies. It was nominated for six Oscar awards and finally won four of them.

“The category has a new name now, from best foreign language to best international feature film. I’m so happy to be its first recipient under the new name,” Bong said in his acceptance speech, adding that he supports the new direction the change symbolizes.

The South Korean Embassy in Washington tweeted that

“What a night for ‘Parasite.’ BIG congratulations to Director Bong, actors, actresses, staffs and the Korean film community! Can’t be more proud of you all!”

Joaquin Phoenix wins Oscars Best Actor Award for “Joker”

Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor Award for his performance as a loner clown in psychological thriller film “Joker” at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony.

This is Phoenix’s fourth Oscar nominations but first win, beating out strong rivals including Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”), Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) and Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”).

Phoenix had already taken home trophies at the Golden Globes, Critics’ Choice, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy Film Awards for his role in the film as Arthur Fleck, a failed stand-up comedian who descended into insanity and nihilism.

Renee Zellweger wins Oscars Best Actress Award for “Judy”

Renee Zellweger took home the Best Actress Award for her performance as famed U.S. singer and actress Judy Garland in the biographical drama film “Judy” at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony held at the Dolby Theatre here Sunday night.

This is Zellweger’s second Oscar win. She has won the Best Supporting Actress in 2004 for her role in the epic U.S. Civil War romance “Cold Mountain.”

Zellweger beat out Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”), Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”), Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”) and Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”), the only woman of color nominated for an acting Oscar this year.

Zellweger has been widely considered as this awards season’s favorite. She had previously won her fourth Golden Globe for best actress. She was also the winner at the British Academy Film Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.

“Jojo Rabbit” takes Best Adapted Screenplay at 92nd Oscars

“Jojo Rabbit”, a black comedy based on Christine Leunens’ 2008 novel Caging Skies, won the Best Adapted Screenplay award at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, or the Oscars, held at the Dolby Theatre here on Sunday night.

Taika Waititi, the New Zealand-born director who wrote the script of “Jojo Rabbit,” said in his acceptance speech that he would like to dedicate the award to “all the indigenous kids who live in the world who want to do art, and dance, and write stories.”

Waititi also thanked his mother for giving him the book on which he based the film, saying “this film wouldn’t have existed without you doing that.”

“Jojo Rabbit” tells a story about a fatherless boy growing up in Nazi Germany, in which the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler becomes an imaginary surrogate father to Jojo, a Hitler Youth member, even as Jojo’s mother shelters a Jewish girl in their home.

At the end, Jojo’s mother was killed by the Nazis and the boy smashed the illusory father.

Along with the Best Adapted Screenplay, “Jojo Rabbit” was also nominated for several other Oscars including a best supporting nomination for Scarlett Johansson, Best Picture this year against “Ford V Ferrari,” “The Irishman,” “Joker,” “Little Women,” “Marriage Story,” “1917,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Parasite.”

Laura Dern took the gold statue for Best Supporting

Actress for her brittle performance in “Marriage Story” at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony, or Oscars.

It’s Dern’s first Oscar win, beating out Kathy Bates, Scarlett Johansson, Florence Pugh and Margot Robbie.

Dern has dominated the category at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy Awards this season for her portrayal of Nora Fanshaw, a high-powered divorce lawyer in the drama film.

She thanked Noah Baumbach, director and screenwriter of “Marriage Story” for “a movie about love, and about breaching divisions.”

The actress also thanked her actor parents, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, calling them “acting legends” and her “heroes.”

Dern, whose birthday is Monday, finished her acceptance speech by saying, “This is the best birthday present ever.”

She had been nominated twice before for Oscars for “Rambling Rose” and “Wild.”

“American Factory” wins Best Documentary Feature at 92nd Oscars

“American Factory” won the award for best documentary feature at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony.

“American Factory,” the first film from the former U.S. first couple Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground Productions in partnership with Netflix, beat out “The Cave,” “The Edge of Democracy,” “For Sama” and “Honeyland” in the documentary feature category.

Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, the documentary is about Chinese company Fuyao’s factory in the U.S. state of Ohio bringing jobs to unemployed Americans and the ups and downs along the way.

“Thank you to everyone who trusted us to tell your stories,” said Bognar in his acceptance speech.

As the film involves both Americans and Chinese, “it really could be from anywhere that people put on a uniform, punch a clock, trying to make their families have a better life,” said Reichert.

Reichert honored “working people” in her acceptance speech, noting that they “have it harder and harder these days.”

“We believe that things will get better when workers of the world unite,” she added.

Brad Pitt wins best supporting actor of 92nd Oscars

Brad Pitt nabbed the Best Supporting Actor award for his role in the film “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony.

Pitt beat out the “Irishman” duo Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”) and Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”).

Pitt had never won an acting Oscar despite three previous nominations.

He won a Best Picture Oscar for producing “12 Years a Slave” in 2014. He has raked in the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards as well as a British Academy award for his role as Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s “One Upon a Time in Hollywood” this season.

Source: Xinhua – LOS ANGELES