'The Farewell' director Lulu Wang calls for a change in the HFPA's policy, 'Glee' actor Harry Shum Jr. and The Black List founder Franklin Leonard throw in double standard accusation.
- Dec 24, 2020
AceShowbiz - The Golden Globes has yet to unravel its 2021 nominees, but it has got entangled in a controversy. After Variety brought out the report that Lee Isaac Chung's "Minari" is out of the Best Picture competition due to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's category guidelines, a slew of celebrities stepped out to voice their frustration.
Among those blasting the HFPA for relegating the Steven Yeun-starring film to the Best Foreign Language Film category was "The Farewell" 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," she tweeted.
The woman behind 2014's "Posthumous" also called for change in the Globes eligibility rule that places any film with at least 50 per cent of non-English dialogue into the Foreign Language category. "We really need to change these antiquated rules that characterizes American as only English-speaking," she further argued in the same tweet.
"Little Fires Everywhere" author Celeste Ng, on the other hand, expressed a stronger criticism at the policy. "This is a gorgeous film by an American, about Korean-speaking Americans in America, which would be a strong contender for awards in ANY category," she tweeted. "The idea that only films in English count as 'American' is complete bulls**t."
Also weighing in on the controversy, "Hawaii Five-0" actor Daniel Dae Kim pointed out, "The film equivalent of being told to go back to your country when that country is actually America." Andrew Phung of "Kim's Convenience" chimed in, "A sad and disappointing reminder that a movie about the American dream, set in America, starring an American, directed by an American, and produced by an American company, is somehow foreign. #Minari."
Expressing similar sentiment were Phung's co-star Simu Liu and "Pachinko" author Min Jin Lee. "Just for the record, 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," wrote Liu, whereas Lee noted, "The English language is not an indigenous language. Enough of this nonsense about Asian-Americans being permanently foreign. I'm done."
Others tookissue with the HFPA's double standard using Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" as an example. "Shadowhunters" actor Harry Shum Jr. tweeted, "Checks 'Inglorious Bastards' English to German, French & Italian ratio - roughly 30:70 #Minari is an American film," and The Black List founder Franklin Leonard noted, "Let us not forget that Inglorious Basterds was mostly not in English and was not classified the same way."
"Minari" was premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. It went on to win both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. Its story centers around a family of South Korean immigrants who try to make it in rural Arkansas in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the 2021 nominations of the Globes will be announced on February 3, 2021.
