Parasite’s Big Night at the Oscars and Why It Matters
I usually avoid watching the Oscars. After a year of seeing so many films, debating nominees, celebrating favorites and mourning snubs, the awards telecast can feel like a long, cluttered exercise: countless musical numbers, presenters passing the baton, and far too many commercial breaks. It’s tempting to ignore the spectacle and simply form one’s own opinions about cinema, independent of an industry awards body that has historically overlooked auteurs like Hitchcock or Kubrick and that has too often failed to recognize women fairly.
Still, there are nights that justify tuning in — moments when a ceremony actually changes the conversation. Last night was one of those moments.
Parasite and its creative team walked away with the honors they truly deserved: Best Original Screenplay, Best International Feature (a landmark for South Korea), Best Director and Best Picture. After weeks of punditry and speculation — including talk of other contenders taking the top prize — it was gratifying to see a film that so many viewers admired win across major categories. For fans of the film, those wins let us stop worrying and simply celebrate a movie we love.
That joy, however, doesn’t erase deeper problems the Oscars still face. Parasite winning does not fix the industry’s ongoing lack of representation for women and non-white filmmakers across nominations, awards and the broader film landscape. There is still essential work to be done to ensure diverse voices are heard and valued at every stage of filmmaking. Yet the scale of Parasite’s success — taking home the ceremony’s two biggest awards — is a meaningful sign that barriers can be broken.
It’s difficult to overstate what this win means for everyone involved with the film. For audiences who connected with Parasite, this is a moment to share in that achievement. The film’s cross-cultural resonance is what makes it remarkable: beyond its technical and artistic accomplishments, it delivers emotional and political impact that transcends language and national borders.
I remember leaving the theater convinced I had to write about the film, but also feeling unsettled. Parasite finishes on a note that feels like false hope, with the protagonist retreating into a dream that suggests he may not have truly learned from the horrors he experienced. Watching three families be torn apart by prejudice, economic inequality, and an absence of empathy is emotionally devastating. The film is so intense and affecting that I find it difficult to watch repeatedly; each viewing leaves me emotionally drained, as though I carry a part of those characters away with me.
Following Bong Joon-ho’s interviews and discussions about his creative process has been revealing in its own right. His approach is a lesson in visual storytelling: he embraced limitations of space and used them deliberately to reflect the lives of his characters. His attention to blocking, production design, and the choreography of each scene shows how much thought can go into filmmaking long before cameras roll. His acceptance speech demonstrated humor, humility and a love of cinema, and his shout-outs to established directors underscored the importance of filmmakers promoting and supporting one another.
Moments like this explain why awards shows still matter to many people. Representation is not about token gestures or checking boxes; it’s about allowing people to look at a global stage and see themselves reflected. When a film like Parasite succeeds on the Academy’s biggest night, it sends a powerful message: filmmakers from any country can tell important stories that resonate worldwide and be recognized for their work. That recognition encourages creators everywhere to believe their voices are valuable and their stories deserve an audience.
In the long run, I look forward to the ripple effects of tonight’s results. I expect to hear, years from now, acceptance speeches in which new filmmakers say they were inspired by Bong Joon-ho and by the doors that Parasite helped open. This film will be remembered as a historic Best Picture winner — and for many of us, that’s a celebration worth tuning in for.