Which South Korean film became the first non-English-language film to win Best Picture? Parasite did so at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020.
Directed by Bong Joon Ho, Parasite is a Korean-language dark comedy thriller about a poor family gradually infiltrating the household of a wealthy family. Its Oscar victory was historic for South Korean cinema: it became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award recognition and the first film with a primarily non-English-language script to win Best Picture.
The film won four Oscars from six nominations: Best Picture, Best Director for Bong, Best Original Screenplay for Bong and Han Jin-won, and Best International Feature Film. It also became only the third film to win both the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Oscar for Best Picture, following Marty and The Lost Weekend. A common mix-up is The Artist, which was the first foreign-produced film to win Best Picture, but was largely silent rather than conventionally non-English-language.