'Parasite' makes history by winning four Oscars including Best Picture

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

'Parasite's' cast and crew assembled on stage after the Best Picture award was announced.

It was a historic night for the South Korean movie Parasite. It won four Academy Awards, including the most prestigious award, Best Picture, the first Asian film to win that prize.

Parasite, a black comedy about class bias, also won Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best International Feature. Director Bong Joon-Ho's win was the first Oscar for a Korean filmmaker.

The last director of Asian descent to win Best Director and Best Picture was Taiwanese American Ang Lee for Life of Pi in 2013.

“Just to be nominated was a huge honor,” Bold told the audience through an interpreter when he won the director's Oscar. “I never thought I would win.”

“I will drink until next morning,” he joked.

Parasite's Best Picture award was well received by the celebrity-filled audience although it was predicted that the Oscar would go to the big-budget spectacle 1917. 

When the award was announced, the Parasite's cast and crew assembled on the stage as producer Kwak Sin-ae said through a translator, "I'm speechless. We never imagined this to ever happen, we are so happy. I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now. I express my deepest gratitude and respect for all the members of the Academy for making this decision."

SCREEN CAPTURE / ABC

Bong Joon-Ho won an Oscar for directing 'Parasite.'

Kazu Hiro won an Oscar for Hair and Makeup who, along with Vivan Baker and Anne Morgan, won for their work in Bombshell. It was the second oscar for Hiro, who had previouisly won for Churchill in 2018.

The evening saw the first Maori, Taika Waititi, to win an Oscar for best adapted screenplay for the film Jojo Rabbit. Waititi dedicated his award to "All the indigenous kids of the world who want to do art and dance and write stories. We are the original storytellers, and we can make it here (Hollywood) as well."

Later in the evening when he presented one of the awards, he reminded the audience that the ceremonies were taking place "on the ancestral lands of the Tongva, Tataviam and the Chumash.

Diversity and inclusion was an underlying them for the evening when Monae sang the opening number, she reminded the audience of the Academy's shortcomings. "It's time to come alive," sang Janelle Monáe in the show's opening number, "because the Oscars is so white!"

Although Parasite won the major awards for the night, none of its cast was nominated for individual acting awards. The movie's cast had previously won Best Acting Ensemble at the Golden Globes.

Of the 20 acting nominations, this year, only one, Cynthia Evio, was an actor of color for her work in Harriet. No women had been nominated for Best Director despite several Oscar-worthy movies directed by women, including Lulu Wang for The Farewell and Greta Gerwig for Little Women.