‘Parasite’ and the changing Oscars

The final Oscars ceremony of the 2010s has wrapped up and it was one of the most, if not the most, exciting conclusions to an awards season ever.

Parasite made Oscars history as the first film not in English to win Best Picture and the first South Korean film to win Best International Feature — it was also the first nominee. Not only that, Bong Joon-ho upset heavily favored frontrunner Sam Mendes for 1917 in Best Director and took home Best Original Screenplay‚ the first foreign-language film to win since Talk to Her seventeen years ago. 

Reader, when I tell you I screamed. I might have scared my neighbors.

However, you have to consider the biggest context for last night’s Oscars. It is perhaps the largest step forward for the Academy and possibly a glimpse at the next decade of awards. Parasite’s historic win was at the expense of a type of movie we’ve all come to know as an “Oscar movie.” 1917 had everything going for it on paper. It was a technically-stunning war epic from a major stu…