Did Parasite Really Deserve to Win Best Picture?

Last Sunday night, Parasite shocked the world by becoming the first international film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. Many film fans were stunned and ecstatic at the news, myself included. But after the announcement, amid the virtual cheers of joy, there was a contingent of people questioning whether Parasite deserved the Academy’s highest honor or not. Was its win simply a result of its status as an international feature? Should Best Picture have gone to something like 1917 instead?

Yes, Parasite did deserve to win. But that doesn’t make it the best film of this year. I know that might not make a lot of sense, but let me explain.

What does it mean to win Best Picture? Let’s start by breaking down what exactly the Best Picture category is. With these awards, there is a large amount of subjectivity in the voting. So if the award is given to what voters considered “the best motion picture of the year,” then we can assume that Parasite was the majority of the voters’ favorite, and thus automatically deserved to win, right?

Well, not necessarily.

Look, we all know the Oscars are notorious for awarding a film based upon either its message or the legacy of its creators, rather than the actual quality of the film itself. Look no further than the 2006 winner Crash, beating out Brokeback Mountain to claim Best Picture. It’s 14 years later, and people are still upset about it. So is that what happened with Parasite? Did it win because of its commentary on class division? Was its status as a foreign film the reason it swept the night with four major awards? As easy as it is to dismiss these questions, I think they’re valid and actually well worth examining.

Let’s start with the fact that it’s a Korean film, because I think that question is easier to answer. There have been 92 Best Picture winners, and out of the 11 international films that have ever been nominated, Parasite is the first to win. Even 2018’s Roma, which also won Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director, lost Best Picture to Green Book. Based on history alone, The Academy hasn’t shown much favor to foreign films, and, if anything, it seems non-English films have an uphill battle to fight. To say Parasite won simply because of the language it’s in is a touch naive at best.

That leaves us with the other glaring question: Did Parasite win simply because of its message? I’d love to just answer with a simple “no” and move on, but I think there’s more nuance in this question than that. Immediately, it begs the question, “What exactly is Parasite’s message?” Well, you could ask ten different people, and they would all give ten different but equally sincere answers on what exactly it’s saying. Many see it as a critique of Capitalism. Others see Parasite as the story of the poor struggling to crawl out of poverty underneath the cruel hand of the rich. I personally see it as a nuanced picture of the relationship and struggle between rich and poor, how good and evil manifest themselves within all of us, and the humanity that exists regardless of class. Whatever you walked away from Parasite with, it’s difficult to make the argument that it’s pushing forward a particular political agenda. There is a lot of nuance in its story, and in Hollywood, that’s a rare commodity. Every story has a message, sometimes it’s profound, other times it’s rather simple and straightforward. Whatever a story’s message is, though, there are few who enjoy being beaten over the head with it. And while Parasite is very clearly a film that talks about class, at its core, it remains a story, not a sermon. 2019 saw many movies with great messages nominated, like Little Women and its feminist overtones, and The Irishman’s incredibly deep reminder that you shouldn’t kill people because otherwise, your daughter may disown you. Jokes aside, reducing Parasite’s win to simple virtue signaling is overly dismissive, and only those who haven’t actually seen the film will fall into this line of reasoning.

So that settles it then, Parasite deserved to win Best Picture! It was clearly awarded based on its storytelling prowess and the incredible campaign it used to effectively bribe Academy voters…

Wait, hold on.

I feel like we’ve all forgotten how this process actually works. Films make campaigns for their Oscars. Production studios spend millions upon millions of dollars to give their film the best shot it can at winning these awards. From their perspective, The Academy Awards are an investment opportunity to boost a film’s sale numbers. And while it was far from the largest amount, Neon did spend an estimated $4-$5 million on Parasite’s Oscar campaign.

Ultimately, Parasite won because it was a great movie with a fantastic Oscar campaign.

So did it deserve to win? Sure, based upon what I just said, yes, it did. But winning an Oscar doesn’t make a movie the de facto “film of the year.” And it didn’t win simply based upon its merits as a great movie. There were many different elements all coming together at just the right time that helped Parasite win this prestigious award. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be excited about Parasite’s Best Picture win. By all means, go run down the street and yell it to all your neighbors. But we should be using this opportunity to tell people about how great Parasite is and the many ways its story has impacted us. Why are so many of us instead using it to tear down others and the films they felt should have won the award?

It’s truly a wonderful feeling when something we love dearly gets recognized. But winning an award shouldn’t validate our feelings about something, in the same way that something losing an award doesn’t invalidate our experiences with a particular story or work of art. I think most of us can easily go back to our favorite films of all time and make an argument for why they should have won Best Picture that year, but for one reason or another, it went to something else. Does that mean we were wrong about the movie we loved the most? Of course not! It most likely means our favorite film just didn’t run a great Oscar campaign.

What’s most frustrating, though, is the divisive discourse surrounding Parasite’s win, and it’s coming from both its haters and its supporters. We shouldn’t write off Parasite’s victory as a result of its international status, but at the same time, we shouldn’t write off criticism of its win as a result of its international status either.

For some, Joker was their film of the year, and instead of using that to connect with people and share other wonderful films with them, many are ridiculing and belittling them. Don’t get me wrong. I understand that the most vocal of Joker fanboys have been incredibly toxic, and I’m not saying we should be okay with that. But when it comes to interacting with the vast majority of Joker fans, why do we have to mock them instead of encouraging them to see the films that inspired the Joker’s story and style?

We don’t really know how history will look back on these Oscars, but I have a guess. I think we’ll always look back at 2019 as an incredible year for film. And out of the many wonderful movies, one of them won Best Picture. Whether it was your personal favorite or not, there’s no denying it’s a good film. There’s also no reason to think it has to be everyone’s favorite, either. It’s not “the world’s” film of the year. It’s the Academy’s.

At the end of the day, the most important thing to remember is that these awards don’t matter. We say that every year, and then still get upset when our favorite doesn’t win. For a lot of us, Parasite was our personal film of the year, and we’re overjoyed to see it getting the recognition we feel it deserves. But many feel the award should have gone to a different movie, and that’s completely fine. Now I’m not saying we shouldn’t get excited or upset at Oscar wins and snubs (because how DARE they not even nominate Adam Sandler). I think a lot of fascinating discussions can be had when looking back at the previous year of films. After the dust has settled, we have a better chance to see what was overhyped, what was overlooked, and what films genuinely resonated with us well after their credits rolled.

What ultimately matters, though, is that these stories all got to be told and experienced by millions across the world. Films impact us in so many different ways, and however they turn out, the Oscars give us a chance every year to highlight those stories that have touched us the most. So instead of mocking the IQ of Joker fans, let’s celebrate this historic win by sharing the wonder of international cinema and encouraging others to experience these moving stories for themselves.