(Image: CJ Entertainment)
Casting Janelle Monáe as Mr Rogers was a stylish opening move in an Oscars ceremony packed with bold gestures aimed at tackling the Academy’s diverse-averse syndrome. Like BAFTA, which last week despatched a tutting Duke of Cambridge to order the British film industry to pull its collective socks up, the Academy was eager to demonstrate that it’s not nearly as straight, middle-aged, white, or male as its widely heckled nominations had suggested.
By a stroke of fortune, and contrary to the expectations of most, Bong Joon-ho’s stylishly wicked satire Parasite was the night’s big winner, bagging four awards and becoming the first South Korean Oscar winner as well as the first foreign-language feature to win Best Picture. As PR, it could scarcely have been more ideal. Viewers worldwide watched as a South Korean woman (producer Kwak Sin-ae) picked up the biggest prize in Movieland. Others, including Chelsea Ritschel here at the Independent, praised the deft and brilliant Sharon Choi, director Bong’s translator, who probably said more than any other woman onstage, albeit not her own words.
For the feature in full, visit The Independent.