The BAFTA Awards commenced with elegance as the nominated ladies flaunted their designer dresses across the red carpet, this combined wonderfully with the multiple wins for 1917 and Parasite; as well as the standing ovation for ‘Outstanding Contribution’ winner Andy Serkis. But most importantly, Joaquin Phoenix calling out BAFTAs on the lack of diversity within the industry dominated the night in London. Let’s look back on the most poignant and heartfelt moments from the 2020 BAFTA Awards.

Standing ovation for Andy Serkis

Serkis’s sensational, avant-garde-esque service to the film industry over the last two decades was met with incredible acclamation; with the audience giving him a standing ovation. Clearly, the most popular person in the building, every face in the crowd beamed with delight after each word of his speech: “I love this work. Motion capture is an egalitarian art form.” Serkis proclaimed as he was handed his ‘Oustanding Contribution’ award. All of this acclamation makes it even more baffling that he has been snubbed as much as he has.

Joaquin Phoenix calls out BAFTAs on lack of diversity

The week leading up to the BAFTAs presented us with the viral hashtag “”, which was the result of the clear lack of representation presented through this year’s nominees list; so there was no surprise that during his acceptance speech for Best Actor, Joaquin Phoenix used this platform to put the focus on the historical systematic racism within the Award Show.

While he began the speech with thanks towards the academy, the Joker actor expressed:

“I also feel conflicted – we send a very clear message to people of colour that ‘you’re not welcome

here.”

“I’m ashamed to say that I’m part of the problem because I’ve not ensured that the sets I’ve worked on are inclusive.”

“We really have to do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism. I think that it is the obligation of the people who have created and perpetuated and benefited from a system of oppression to dismantle it… so that’s on us.”

Parasite and 1917 dominate the awards

After winning the award for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards, receiving four nominations at the 73rd British Academy Film Awards, and also becoming the first non-English film to win the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. Parasite continued to impress at the BAFTAs by winning the awards for Best Film Not in the English Language and Original screenplay.

WW1 drama 1917 racked up an incredible four award wins at the BAFTAS: for Best Sound, Product Design, Film and Outstanding Film Award. After already winning two awards at the 77th Golden Globe Awards: for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director.

Words by Charlie Miller

Graphics by Katie Janes

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In light of his dazzling Golden Globes awards speech, where he tells the world, ‘once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films’, Bong Joon-ho seems to be making his mark in modern Hollywood cinema, guided by his genre-bending tragicomedy Parasite (2019) and its flavourful layers of family drama, social class tension, and romance.

Born in Daegu, South Korea, Bong was surrounded by a familial community of artists, with his father being a graphic designer, his grandfather an author, his brother an English literature professor and his sister a fashion designer. It was not surprising, therefore, that Bong himself soon developed a fascination for the artistic creativity offered by the world of cinema and its multi-layered combination of screenwriting, producing and directing. After enrolling in the Korean Academy of Film Arts and spending the next seven years making short 16mm films, now and then contributing to works by other notable directors such as Park Ki-yong’s Motel Cactus, Bong finally released his debut directorial work, Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), a satirical dark comedy about an out-of-work college professor who resorts to kidnapping barking dogs due to the excess of noise in his apartment building. The film received mainly favourable reviews, but was still deeply entrenched in anonymity, passed on solely through the lips of cult film-oriented critics and screened predominantly in marginalised venues.

His second film, which functioned as a vessel into Bong’s mainstream popularity within the Korean film industry, is titled Memories of Murder (2003) and examines the true story of Korea’s first serial murders in history taken place between 1986 and 1991. In keeping with his interest in tales of mystery, murder and psychological intrigue, the film received an abundance of critical praise in view of Bong’s realistic treatment of the all- too human desperation of his key characters. Its evident genre-mixing also foreshadows the melting pot of timely social themes, black humour and emotional drama that later manifests itself in his well-known feature films such as The Host (2006), Snowpiercer (2013) and Okja (2017).

Being the first Korean film to win the Golden Globe award for best foreign-language film, Parasite has achieved, in an extraordinarily short span of time, unprecedented heights in the field of foreign filmic representation, bringing to light the lack of recognition prevalent within Asian cinema, both in terms of critical reception and distribution opportunities. To quote Bong himself, ‘I think we only use one language: the cinema’, the revolutionary success of Parasite seems to remind us as audiences that the act of storytelling constitutes of more than just divorced, unanimated prints of dialogue and instead indicates the global unity inherent within the nature of cinematic language.

Bong, along with Adam McKay, is set to be the executive producer to the upcoming American TV series adaptation of Parasite for HBO.

Words by Shir Ariya

Graphics by Katie Janes

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