MANILA, Philippines – The cast of Parasite, Bong Joon-ho’s “upstairs-downstairs” movie about a poor South Korean family that slowly infiltrates a wealthy family’s home, won the top prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Monday, January 20 (late Sunday, January 19 in the US). 

Parasite is the first foreign language film to take home the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award. 

“Althought the title is Parasite, I think the title is about co-existence and how we can all live together. But to be honored… it occurs to me that maybe we haven’t created such a bad movie,” said Song Kang-ho, who plays the patriarch of the cunning Kim family in the movie, after accepting the award. 

“History has been made,” read one of the SAG Awards’ official Instagram stories showing a clip of Bong Joon-ho celebrating with the cast of the movie.  

The win, considered the SAG equivalent to “Best Picture,” comes amid discussions on lack of diversity and representation among Hollywood’s elite award-giving bodies. 

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US-based entertainment news sites noted that the audience – composed of Hollywood’s biggest names on- and off-screen – gave a rousing standing ovation as actors Choi Woo-shik, Lee Sun Gyun, Park So-dam, Song Kang-ho and Lee Jeong-eun went on stage to present a clip of the film.

Parasite won the Palme d’Or during the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

The exclusion of Parasite cast members in most acting awards is both dumbfounding and unsurprising. Alex Abad-Santos said on Vox, following the announcement of 2020 Academy Award nominees: “The Academy that doesn’t have a good track record of rewarding foreign-language films and actors.” 

None of the cast members have nominations in the Academy Awards, the Golden Globes, or the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Film awards. They did get nods from the SAGs and the Independent Spirit Awards. 

This, despite the fact the film is a Best Picture nominee and director Bong Joon-ho has been nominated for Best Director by the same award-giving bodies. “The lack of hardware or even nominations for Parasite’s cast is curious in that the movie has been the best-reviewed movie of the last year,” said Abad-Santos. 

Director Bong Joon-ho later admitted that “it is true that the momentum is building” for the Oscars.

The film, which merges comedy, drama and horror genres, follows a poor family as it infiltrates a wealthier household, and tackles the widening class gulf.

Parasite is up for both Best Picture and Best Director plums for the 2020 Academy Awards. – with a report from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com