“Minari,” an A24 drama directed by Lee Isaac Chung, has been categorized as a foreign language film for the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards in February, and social media is accusing the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of racism.
The HFPA has kept “Minari,” which won awards following screenings at the Sundance and Middleburg film festivals, from being nominated for the Best Picture categories, a similar decision faced by Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell” last year.
“Minari” will instead be competing for the foreign language film category “because it is primarily in Korean,”Variety first reported earlier this week.
Steven Yeun and Yeri Han will still be eligible for the leading actor and actress categories.
The decision not to nominate “Minari” for the Best Picture categories has sparked a massive backlash from Asian American celebrities, including “The Farewell” writer and director Lulu Wang.
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. https://t.co/1NZbkJFE9v
“I have not seen a more American film than Minari this year,” Wang wrote. “It’s a story about an immigrant family, IN American, pursuing the American dream. We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking.”
Others expressed the same sentiment, with many accusing the HFPA of being racist and xenophobic towards a movie that centers around a Korean immigrant family that moves to a small farm in Arkansas.
The film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is actually America. https://t.co/kwEf8eO9v8
an intrinsically american film about people in america navigating what it means to be american while surrounded by a bunch of other americans in real deep america. but far be it for me to question a sacred institution that’s about to nominate THE PROM for Best Picture. https://t.co/Ie7MaPpL6z
#Minari is an American film about new Americans. Everyone in America except for indigenous people came from somewhere else by choice or force. The English language is not an indigenous language. Enough of this nonsense about Asian-Americans being permanently foreign. I’m done. https://t.co/GEuXGDx85I
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