The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced nominations of the 78th Golden Globes Awards on February 3 and placed the film Minari under the Foreign-Language Film category instead of the Best Picture category, sparking controversy on social media.
According to Bustle, the film was deemed ineligible for Best Picture despite the film’s American production company, American director, and American lead. This is due to a controversial rule created by the HFPA which states that if 50% of a film’s spoken dialogue isn’t in English, it can’t be nominated for Best Picture, and is instead relegated to Foreign-Language Film. Since Minari is mostly in Korean, it was ineligible to compete.
“I have not seen a more American film than #Minari this year. It’s a story about an immigrant family, IN America, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterize American as only English-speaking,” wrote actress Lulu Wang on Twitter, reports Bustle.
Social media users pointed out that the Golden Globes placed “Minari” under the foreign film category but failed to do the same for the 2009 Quentin Tarantino movie “Inglorious Basterds,” which was nominated for Best Picture Drama even though only 30% of the film was spoken in English, reports Yahoo News.
“Minari is U.S. produced, about an American family & their relatable American story. ‘Golden Globes do mandate that any film with at least 50% of non-English dialogue goes into the foreign language category.’ Racism in all its forms is illogical,” wrote one Twitter user, according to Yahoo News.
The HFPA’s rule has long been a source of controversy, reports Bustle. The HFPA has been criticized in the past for excluding Roma director Alfonso Cuarón, Parasite director Bong Joon-ho, and The Farewell director Lulu Wang from the Best Picture category in previous ceremonies.
“The whole point of Minari was that it was supposed to be an American film about the struggles of a Korean American family in integrating with American society,” one Twitter user wrote, according to Bustle. “The fact that it’s put under the foreign language category is just disrespectful to everyone involved and its message.”
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