Minari

Lee Isaac Chung first meant to adapt Willa Cather’s My Ántonia, turning to his own childhood on learning she had barred film versions of her work. He wrote the script in English; Hong Yeo-ul put part of the dialogue into colloquial Korean. He told his parents only in the edit. Set in Arkansas, the film was shot around Tulsa, Oklahoma, over 25 days, editor Harry Yoon cutting alongside to make the Sundance deadline. Sundance 2020 gave it the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award. The 93rd Academy Awards brought 6 nominations: Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Supporting Role. Only the last converted, making Youn Yuh-jung the first Korean actor to win an Oscar. The 74th BAFTAs gave 6 nominations too, the supporting actress award again going to Youn. At the 78th Golden Globes it won Best Foreign Language Film, entered as a United States production. The rule sending any film with over half its dialogue outside English into that category drew objections; Lulu Wang had met it a year earlier with The Farewell. A good fit if you want an actor’s own idea landing in the film, like the church collection plate scene Youn proposed. Not for an evening without subtitles; over half the talking is in Korean.