“Minari”, Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical story about a Korean-American family in search of the American dream in rural Arkansas during the 1980s, was the favorite for the best foreign language film Golden Globe and, on Sunday night , secured the trophy.
“This is the reason I made this film,” said Chung in his acceptance speech, while hugging his daughter tightly. “Minari is about a family. It is a family that tries to learn to speak their own language, ”he said. “It is deeper than any American language and any foreign language; it is a language of the heart. “
His message was a nod to the controversy surrounding his film. The film did not meet Globes’ 50 percent English language requirement – the characters speak mainly Korean – so it was entered in the foreign language category, although Chung, 42, is an American director, the film was shot in the United States and was financed by American companies.
And as “Minari” was in the category of foreign language films, I could not compete for the awards for best film. (It is worth noting, the film’s distributor, A24, entered “Minari” in the foreign language category.) The cast of “Minari” was eligible for nominations as an actor, but received none.
The classification generated accusations of racism and favoritism – “Inglourious Bastards” by Quentin Tarantino (2009), for example, also did not meet the requirements of the English language and, even so, was nominated for the award for best film – and calls for changes to the rules.
“Perhaps the positive side of all of this is that we made a film that challenges some of the existing categories and heightens the idea that an American film can look and sound very different from what we are used to,” Chung recently told The New York Times. “It’s hard to say, ‘I require a seat at a table for the best shot. ‘”