The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sparked an outcry on Tuesday when it announced that Minari would be classified as a foreign language film for Golden Globes voters, Variety reports.
HFPA guidelines stipulate that films must feature at least 50 percent English dialogue to be nominated in the Best Drama or Best Comedy/Musical categories. Films that do not have 50 percent English dialogue are placed in the foreign language category.
But the film, directed by American director Lee Isaac Chung, tells a story that is uniquely American. Chung’s semi-autobiographical film centers around a Korean American family in the 1980s who move to Arkansas to start their own farm.
Film journalists also pointed out the hypocrisy of the HFPA’s decision, when films like Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel were placed in the main Best Picture Category in the past, according to Indie Wire. Both films predominantly featured foreign languages.
Director Lulu Wang, who has also been the victim of the HPFA’s foreign language rules, criticized the categorization on Twitter. Her film The Farewell, which was about a Chinese American woman visiting her dying grandmother in China, was placed in the foreign language category despite featuring an American protagonist.
Wang said she had not seen a more American film than Minari this year.
“We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking,” Wang said.
“Lost” star and television director Daniel Dae Kim noted that the decision was like “the film equivalent of being told to go back to your country.”
The HFPA has already moved films to different categories. A Promising Young Woman was moved from Best Comedy/Musical to Best Drama. They have not indicated that they will switch Minari‘s categorization.
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“We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking,” Wang said.
And white.