The New York Film Credits Online has named the film Minari best picture in 2020. The foreign language film, conquering a total of three awards, is directed by Lee Isaac Chung. The story unfolds as the plot follows a Korean American family that recently immigrated to a small farm in 1980s Arkansas and is confronted with more challenges than they anticipated. Stressing family as a theme, the film eloquently imparts the difficulties and unknown sides of pursuing the American Dream. The scenes mirror how the Korean family as well as countless other immigrant families in real life that enter the United States are posed with struggles with making a living and the strife with the sense of belonging.
The acclaimed film has won two more awards on top of best picture: Actress Yuh-Jung Youn won the title of best supporting actress and the film topped the foreign language category as most of the dialogue is in Korean. Minari has also received a Rotten Tomatoes score of 99% and been named one of the top ten films of 2020 by the American Film Institute. This is the third year the New York Film Credits Online has awarded foreign language films, with the predecessors in 2018 and 2019 being “Roma” and “Parasite,” respectively. It is certainly a step forward to recognizing achievements of different cultures through film and displaying the prowess of filmmakers who are yet to be acknowledged. Minari will be released theatrically on February 12th and is a must-see for people of all ages!