Bong Joon-ho’s dark comedy thriller, Parasite, has taken the top prize, the Palm d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Parasite details the story of two poor siblings, who infiltrate an affluent household.
The South Korean director’s historic win emerges on the 100 year anniversary of Korean cinema.
The decision to award the prize to Joon-ho was “unanimous” said jury president Alejandro González Iñárritu.
Joon-ho is renown for his earlier films Ojka and Snowpiercer, the former of which was a near recipient of the Palm d’Or in 2017, and for receiving a four minute standing ovation at Cannes that year.
The historic breakthroughs in this year’s festival continued in the awarding of the Grand Prix, the silver medal, which went to Senegalese director Mati Diop for her supernatural drama, Atlantique. Diop has become the first black female director to win an award at Cannes in the Festival’s 72-year history. She was given considerable media attention in anticipation of the festival, as the first black woman to be selected to attend.
Antonio Banderas’s performance in Pain & Glory took the best actor award.
Esteemed auteur, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood left the festival empty-handed, but not without high praise.
This year’s eventful festival has also been home to Elton John’s Rocketman biopic. John, at the festival, has taken the liberty to shoot down critics of the film. Furthermore, attendees of this year’s festival were allowed a sneak preview of Todd Haynes’ Velvet Underground documentary.
