Bong Joon Ho's 'Parasite' is first South Korean film to win international feature Oscar
Los Angeles: Director Bong Joon Ho's "Parasite" scripted history at the Oscars by becoming the first South Korean film to be nominated and win in the international feature category at the 92nd Academy Awards.
It was the second Oscar win of the night for the film, a twisted class satire that defies genres in trademark Bong style. The director and his co-scribe Han Jin-won have already received the best original screenplay Oscar.
The director lauded the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for renaming the category in an attempt to be more inclusive.
"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. I applaud and support the new direction that this change symbolises," the director said.
"I'm bloody ready to drink tonight," he added amid a round of applause and laughter from the audience.
It is yet to be seen whether the film, which entered the competition with six nominations, manages to win the top awards of the ceremony, the best picture and director but its win in the international category was a sure shot.
South Korea has been submitting its entries for the award, which was earlier called best foreign language film, since 1962.
"Parasite" was pitted against "Pain and Glory" (Spain), "Les Miserables" (France), "Corpus Christi" (Poland) and "Honeyland" (North Macedonia).
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'Everyone wants name in newspapers': SC says no to fresh pleas against Waqf law
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Friday refused to examine a couple of fresh pleas challenging the constitutional validity of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, saying everybody wants name in newspapers.
A bench comprising Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih said it would decide the pending matter scheduled to come up on May 20.
The apex court would then hear the point of interim relief in the case.
As soon as one of the pleas came up for hearing on Friday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, objected and said there can't be an "endless" filing of pleas challenging the Act.
The counsel appearing for the petitioner said he had filed the petition on April 8 and removed the defects pointed out by the apex court registry on April 15 but his plea was not listed for hearing.
"Everybody wants his name to be in the newspapers," the CJI observed.
When the lawyer urged the bench his plea should be tagged with the pending petitions, the bench said, "We will decide that matter."
The bench then dismissed it.
When another similar plea came up for hearing, the bench said, "Dismissed".
When the counsel for the petitioner urged that he be allowed to intervene in the pending pleas, the CJI said, "We already have too many intervenors."
On April 17, the apex court decided to hear only five of the total number of pleas before it.
The pleas challenging the Act came up for hearing before a bench comprising the CJI and Justice Masih on May 15.
The bench said it would hear arguments on May 20 for passing interim directions on three issues including the power to denotify properties declared as waqf by courts, waqf-by-user or waqf by deed.
The second issue raised by the petitioners relates to the composition of state waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council, where they contend only Muslims should operate except ex-officio members.
The third issue relates to a provision that says a waqf property will not be treated as a waqf when the collector conducts an inquiry to ascertain if the property is government land.
On April 17, the Centre assured the top court that it would neither denotify waqf properties, including "waqf by user", nor make any appointments to the central waqf council and boards till May 5.
Mehta on May 15 told the apex court that in any case, there was a subsisting assurance of the Centre that no waqf properties, including those established by waqf by user, would be denotified.
The Centre had opposed the apex court's proposal to pass an interim order against the denotification of waqf properties, including "waqf by user" aside from staying a provision allowing the inclusion of non-Muslims in the central waqf councils and boards.
On April 25, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs filed a preliminary 1,332-page affidavit defending the amended Waqf Act of 2025 and opposed any "blanket stay" by the court on a "law having presumption of constitutionality passed by Parliament".
