“Decision to Leave”, which helped Park Chan Wook won Best Director at the 75th Cannes Film Festival, couldn’t get an Oscars nomination.
On January 24th (local time), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) unveiled official nominations for the 95th Academy Awards. Accordingly, “Decision to Leave” by director Park Chan Wook was not named in the list. The film was previously selected as the South Korean entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. However, it was eventually excluded from the final nominations.
The final nominees for Best International Feature Film are “Argentina, 1985” (Argentina), “Close” (Belgium, France, Netherlands), “All Quiet On The Western Front” (Germany), “The Quiet Girl” (Ireland), and “EO” (Poland).
“Decision to Leave” was selected as Best Drama of 2022 by foreign media, such as the New York Times, BBC, Forbes, Hollywood Reporter, etc. In particular, the movie created a craze thanks to word-of-mouth in Korea, and viewers who were so in love with it even named themselves with the modifier “Hechinja” (someone who is crazy about ‘Decision to Leave’). In addition, the film was also nominated for two categories, such as Best Director and Best Foreign Language Film, at the British Academy (BAFTA) and many other big awards, such as the U.S. Golden Globe Awards and Critics Awards. As a result, many people raised hopes for the film to be nominated at the U.S. Academy Awards.
However, “Decision to Leave” was not as lucky and successful as “Parasite”, which won 4 awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best International Film) at the 92nd Oscars. It was ignored by the judging members of the U.S. Academy Awards.
As “Decision to Leave” was highly expected to become an Oscar nominee even if it would be very difficult to win an award. In response to the movie being excluded from the Acadamy Awards finalists, various media outlets commented, “One of the most surprising things this year”. Variety reported, “The result that got us open our eyes wide in the morning”. Some say that the Oscars campaign has become less powerful compared to the “Parasite” era. It is because director Park Chan Wook is currently filming HBO Max’s series “The Sympathizer”.
Mashable said, “The Academy’s decision to ignore Cannes winner ‘Decision to Leave’ is absolutely a crime”. Insider also commented, “One of the biggest rejections of the year”. This issue also rose to 3rd place in Twitter’s real-time trending in the U.S. Movie fans around the world are also expressing disappointment towards the result.
As “Decision to Leave” failed to become an Oscars nominee, a past remark of “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho is also being re-examined. Bong Joon Ho once said, “The Academy Awards is not an international film festival, but a local awards ceremony”.
Although “Decision to Leave” couldn’t become a nominee at the U.S. Academy Awards this year, it already proved the potential of Korean films with the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. Instead of upsetting about the Oscars, fans should look forward to the movie winning at the British Academy.
Source: Daum
