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- BONG Joon-ho’s PARASITE Takes Grand Prize in Sydney
- by Pierce Conran / Jun 19, 2019
- Korean Palme d’Or Continues to Garner Acclaim
Just as it begins to wrap up its successful box office run at home, BONG Joon-ho’s PARASITE has added another trophy to its chest after coming away from the 66th Sydney International Film Festival with the top prize.Featuring SONG Kang-ho and LEE Sun-kyun as the patriarchs of families on opposite ends of the social spectrum who become entangled in increasingly unusual ways, PARASITE was awarded the Official Competition and Sydney Film Prize at the State Theatre in Sydney, as well as a AUD 60,000 (USD 41,300) cash prize.This year’s Jury president, the Australian producer John MAYNARD, said "PARASITE has an outrageous disregard for genre conventions - it is tender and brutal; beautiful and harsh; funny and tragic and a masterwork in its exploration of class."BONG’s seventh film debuted last month at the Cannes Film Festival, his second competition invite there after 2017’s Okja, and beat out new films by Pedro ALMODOVAR and Quentin TARANTINO to become the first Korean film to ever receive the Palme d’Or, the most prestigious award in world cinema.The film opened in Korea on May 30 to rave reviews and, fueled by a media storm surrounding its historic win, became an instant box office smash. As of June 18, the film has accumulated 8.55 million viewers (USD 61.74 million), making it the third most successful film in the director’s career, behind The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013).BONG’s Okja served as the closing film at Sydney two years ago.
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