Parasite won the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. It became the first South Korean film to do so, as well as the first film to win with a unanimous vote since Blue Is the Warmest Colour at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.[122][123] At the 77th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated for three awards, including Best Director and Best Screenplay, and won Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first South Korean film to achieve that feat.[124][125]
It became the second international film to ever be nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture since Life Is Beautiful (1997), and ultimately won the category, making it the first international film to win the prize.[126][127] Parasite was also nominated for four awards at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards—Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Film Not in the English Language, being the first South Korean film to receive nominations other than for Best Film Not in the English Language, and went on to win Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language.[128][129]
Parasite was submitted as the South Korean entry for Best International Feature Film for the 92nd Academy Awards, making the December shortlist.[130][131][132] It went on to win four awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature Film. Parasite became the first non-English language film in Academy Awards history to win Best Picture. Parasite also became the first South Korean film to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards and the second East Asian film to receive a nomination for Best Picture since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000),[133] and Bong Joon-ho became the fourth Asian to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Director, becoming the second to win, after Ang Lee. It also received nominations for Best Film Editing and Best Production Design.[134][135][136] The film is also the second film to win both the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Palme d'Or at Cannes under the latter's name in 65 years since Marty,[137] being the third film to win both grand prizes after the former and The Lost Weekend.[138]
At the 56th Grand Bell Awards, Parasite earned a leading 11 nominations, with five wins (the most for the show): Best Film, Best Director (for Bong), Best Supporting Actress (for Lee Jung-eun), Best Screenplay (for Bong and Han Jin-Won), and Best Music (for Jung Jae-il).[139]
"When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is that, 'The most personal is the most creative."
– Bong Joon-ho in an acceptance speech for winning Best Director at the 92nd Academy Awards, as he attributed to Martin Scorsese.[140]
During Bong's acceptance speech at the Oscars, he paused to thank Martin Scorsese, a co-nominated director, whom Bong recognised as having historical importance to the history of filmmaking, which resulted in spontaneous applause from the audience. The next day, Scorsese sent Bong a congratulatory letter, which Bong reported while on a speaking engagement at the Film at Lincoln Center, though Bong said he could not share the full letter due to its personal nature. He did, however, share the conclusion of the letter, saying that Scorsese told him, "You've done well. Now rest. But don't rest for too long." Bong then added that Scorsese ended his letter by saying "how he and other directors were waiting for my next movie".[141]
The Associated Press commented that although the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) had previously failed to adequately recognise women filmmakers in the Academy Award nominations, this time it acknowledged diversity. The Wall Street Journal also wrote that the film seemed to promise a "more inclusive Oscars" demanded by those who have previously criticised AMPAS.[142] The AP noted that the film's victory, as an Oscar-winning foreign film in a regular Academy category, opened the door for Hollywood to undergo a radical change and a different kind of advancement, as a skeptic worried that if "Parasite won the Oscar for best international film, it probably wouldn't win any other major awards".[143] "The academy gave best picture to the actual best picture", wrote Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times, adding that the film awards body was "startled ... into recognizing that no country's cinema has a monopoly on greatness".[144] In 2021, the Writers Guild of America ranked Parasite's screenplay the fourth-greatest of the 21st century so far.[145]
On 28 March 2023, Cannes Film Festival president Thierry Frémaux revealed that after Everything Everywhere All at Once, a 2022 science fiction comedy-drama also featuring a predominantly Asian cast, won the Best Picture Oscar at the 95th Academy Awards, he began to question whether the Best Picture win for Parasite was worthy enough, saying "How can a non-American film win the Oscar for best film since it's a ceremony in honor of American cinema? Parasite won, it's great, but it's a Korean film."[146]
