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Bong Joon-ho

Director and screenwriter

Film & TV South Korea Hall No. 49

Profile

Why they shine

Bong Joon-ho spent a decade as the most admired Korean director working outside Korea, and inside nine months he took both prizes open to him. In May 2019 a Cannes jury headed by Alejandro González Iñárritu gave Parasite the Palme d'Or unanimously, the first Korean film to win it; in February 2020 the same picture took Best Picture, the first non-English-language film ever to do so, and Bong took Best Director, the first South Korean to win it. He had studied Hitchcock and Chabrol in film school, and at the Oscars he quoted Scorsese's line that the most personal is the most creative.

Full name: Bong Joon-ho
Nationality: South Korea
Known for: Parasite, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer
Role: Director / Screenwriter
Oscar win: Best Director, 2020
Signature: Genre shifts played straight; tonal control

Record

Honor record

Academy Award for Best Director

2020 · Feb 9, 2020

Dolby Theatre, Hollywood

The first South Korean director to win the award, for Parasite, which on the same night became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture. Bong beat Sam Mendes, Todd Phillips, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, and Parasite took four Oscars in all, including Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature.

Palme d'Or

2019 · May 25, 2019

Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, Cannes

The first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or, awarded unanimously by the jury headed by Alejandro González Iñárritu at the closing ceremony of the 72nd festival. Bong took it from Catherine Deneuve and Iñárritu with the words I never imagined this, and brought his regular actor Song Kang-ho onto the stage to share it.

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