Bong Joon-ho asked if he could split his Best Director Oscar statuette into five pieces.

Bong Joon-ho

Bong Joon-ho

The 'Parasite' filmmaker was stunned to win the Academy Award on Sunday (09.02.20) and used his acceptance speech to pay tribute to his fellow nominees, Martin Scorsese ('The Irishman'), Sam Mendes, ('1917'), Todd Phillips, ('Joker'), and Quentin Tarantino, ('Once Upon a Time in Hollywood').

Speaking in a mixture of English and his native Korean via a translator, he said: "Thank you. After winning Best International Feature I thought I was done for the day and ready to relax.

"Thank you so much, when I Was young and studying cinema there was a saying I carved deep into my heart which is the most personal is the most creative."

He then praised "our great, Martin Scorsese" as the audience gave the director a standing ovation, before continuing his speech.

He said: "When I was at school I studied Martin Scorsese's films and just to be nominated was a huge honour, I never thought I would win.

"When people in the US were not familiar with my film, Quentin always put my films on his list, thank you so much.

"And Todd and Sam, great directors I admire, if the Academy allows I would like to get a Texas chainsaw and split the award into five and share it with all of you.

"Thank you, I will drink until next morning."

The award marked Bong's third time on stage, after earlier wins for Original Screenplay, and International Feature Film, which was previously known as Best Foreign Language Film.

Of the latter, he said when accepting the honour: "The category has a new name now, I'm so happy to be its first recipient under the new name.

"I applaud and support the new direction this change symbolises."

Tagged in