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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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
