If you’ve read any of my articles about “Parasite” or the Oscars recently, you know I absolutely adore “Parasite.”

It’s one of my favorite films of all time and, going into Oscar Sunday, I felt more and more confident about it winning Best Picture.

I gathered roughly twenty people into my apartment and we all prepared to see history get made. And boy, did we get a lot more than we expected. 

Advertisement

Director Bong Joon-ho and his film took home four Academy Awards, winning Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Film.

This achievement makes “Parasite” the first non-English film to ever win Best Picture, and these awards mark the first Oscars ever won by a South Korean Film.

Bong personally won Oscars for all four categories, becoming only the second person ever to win four Oscars in one night (The first person to do it was Walt Disney in 1953).

The biggest surprise of the night also came from “Parasite”, with Bong Joon-ho winning Best Director despite “1917” director Sam Mendes winning nearly every major precursor award. 

However, “1917” didn’t go home empty-handed. The film won the second-most awards of the night, getting well-deserved wins for Sound Mixing, Visual Effects and Cinematography. “Ford v Ferrari,” “Joker” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” each earned two Oscars.

“Ford v Ferrari” won Editing and Sound Editing, “Joker” won Score and Actor for Joaquin Phoenix and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” won Production Design and Supporting Actor for Brad Pitt.

Writer-director Taika Waititi won Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit” and became the first Indigenous person ever to win an Oscar.

Advertisement*

Renee Zellweger and Laura Dern both won the Actress prizes, as expected. The acting categories this year were locked from the beginning and it seemed that the Academy agreed with the general awards consensus this year.

Pixar Animation also claimed its tenth win in Best Animated Feature for “Toy Story 4,” something that came as a bit of a surprise after losing out at the Golden Globes and the Annie Awards.

Netflix, though, had a bit of a rough night. Going into the ceremony, the studio led the nominations with 24 overall.

It only ended up with two wins, however, for Dern in “Marriage Story” and for Best Documentary with “American Factory.”

The studio had ten nominations for “The Irishman” alone, and Martin Scorcese’s film wasn’t able to get a single award. 

Neon (“Parasite”), Disney/Fox (“Ford v Ferrari,” “Toy Story 4,” “Jojo Rabbit”) and Sony (“Little Women,” “Hair Love,” “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”) each ended up with four total wins, with Universal taking home three awards for “1917.”

Overall, this has been one of my favorite awards seasons since I started following the Oscars 10 years ago. It could be because my favorite film (and, in my opinion, the right film) won the night, but it seems that the Academy finally got most of the awards correct.

Each winner was deserving of the win, and even most of the other nominees would have been great choices. 

I’m hoping next year is able to be as exciting and rewarding as this awards cycle was, because, if so, the 2021 Oscars will be a whole lot of fun. 

The Full List of Winners from the 92nd Annual Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Parasite

Best Director: Bong Joon-ho, “Parasite”

Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”

Best Actress: Renee Zellweger, “Judy”

Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”

Best Original Screenplay: Parasite

Best Adapted Screenplay: Jojo Rabbit

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 4

Best Documentary Feature: American Factory

Best International Feature: Parasite

Best Cinematography: 1917

Best Editing: Ford v Ferrari

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Bombshell

Best Production Design: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Best Score: Joker

Best Song: “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”, Rocketman

Best Sound Editing: Ford v Ferrari

Best Sound Mixing: 1917

Best Visual Effects: 1917

Best Animated Short: Hair Love

Best Documentary Short: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

Best Live Action Short: The Neighbors’ Window

Staff Writer Kyler Guebert can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @kguebert88.

To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

Advertisement