'Parasite' in Running for Best Foreign Film at 'French Oscars'
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Director Bong Joon-ho's "Parasite" has been nominated for a Cesar Award, France's equivalent of an Oscar.
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France's Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques on Wednesday announced the nominees for this year's Cesar Awards, which are one of the two major film awards in France, along with the Cannes Film Festival.
"Parasite" will compete against five films for best foreign film, including "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" by Quentin Tarantino and "Pain and Glory" by Pedro Almodovar.
Japanese drama "Shoplifters" by Hirokazu Koreeda won the Cesar for best foreign film last year. It also won the prestigious Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2018. If "Parasite" wins the Cesar, it will be the second consecutive time that an Asian film wins both awards.
The popularity of "Parasite" in North America has been given a boost by its six Academy Award nominations. According to the U.S. movie ticket-tracking website Box Office Mojo, 1,060 theaters are screening "Parasite" in North America. It has reached ticket sales of $31.1 million, making it the highest-grossing Korean movie ever in North America and seventh among foreign-language films.
Bong recently appeared on the cover of the special Oscar edition of U.S. magazine Vanity Fair. He said in an interview with the magazine that he hopes to take a month off, "or hopefully a year", and go "maybe to the South Pole. I love cold climates, so I would love to go somewhere cold".