A24 Film(LOS ANGELES) — “[It’s] the film equivalent of being told to go back to your country, when that county is actually America.”
That’s the word from The Good Doctor star and producer Daniel Dae Kim, after the film Minari was not included on the list of potential nominees in the Best Picture Category for the upcoming Golden Globes. The movie, produced by Brad Pitt, stars Will Patton, The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yeun and Han Ye-ri.
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organizers of the annual awards show, instead relegated Minari to the Best Foreign Language category — leading critics like Kim to cry foul.
While characters in Minari predominantly speak in Korean, previous Best Picture nominees have included Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds — in which the mostly foreign cast spoke German and French — and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Babel, in which Spanish was mostly spoken.
Critics are calling the decision racist. Last year’s The Farewell, directed by Lulu Wang and featuring characters speaking in Chinese, was similarly treated by the HFPA at the 2020 Golden Globes.
Wang sounded off on the similar snub, saying, “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 characterizes American as only English-speaking.”
Simu Liu, who stars in the upcoming Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, commented, “Minari is an American movie, written and directed by an American filmmaker, set in America, with an American lead actor and produced by an American production company. What could be more American than that?”
The HFPA insisted to IndieWire that its rules dictate that only movies “with 50 percent or more English dialogue” are eligible for its top categories.
By Stephen Iervolino
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