Anna Daniels
I know time has essentially ceased to matter in the quarantine era, but for those of you who still appreciate marking things like anniversaries, Bong Joon-ho‘s Oscar-winning masterpiece Parasite is coming up on the one year anniversary of its premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Neon, the up-and-coming distributor which helped guide the movie to its historic award season run, has released a video celebrating “a year of cinema” and tracking the movie’s incredible journey from Palm d’Or winner to the Oscar afterparty.
Parasite Anniversary Video
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XygxhDSy9fg?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
Instant classics, the types of films we know will truly stand the test of time after blowing us away the first time we see them, only come along a handful of times per year…if we’re lucky. 2019 was a good year on that front, with Neon bringing us both Parasite and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. So it’s fitting, then, that this video ends with Bong Joon-ho and Portrait writer/director Céline Sciamma partying together and celebrating each other’s work. I can’t imagine very many directors would bring their own celebrations of making history to a halt to honor another filmmaker and her accomplishments, but that is such a cool moment and I’m glad it was included in this video.
This week was supposed to kick off the 2020 Cannes Film Festival, but no physical version of the festival will be taking place this year. Instead, festival leadership will announce a revised Official Selection of movies at some point in June. The movies in the Official Selection will be those scheduled for theatrical release between now and spring 2021, but for those of us who were eager to see what movies would come out of the festival in the wake of launching two of last year’s – and indeed, this century’s – best movies, it’s still a bummer that the festival has had to pivot away from its traditional plans. (It’s obviously much more of a bummer that the coronavirus pandemic is still impacting people across the world, but hopefully that goes without saying.)
But when we look back on this insane period of human history, at least we’ll be able to say that the Academy got it right with Parasite, and take solace in the fact that Bong Joon-ho has finally, rightfully, become a household name and an international icon.
Parasite is streaming right now on Hulu.
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