In a thrilling night for Korean cinema, Past Lives got two major nods at the 96th annual Academy Awards nominations. Celine Song’s feature directorial debut secured two of the Big Five nominations – Best Picture and Original Screenplay.
Past Lives, a Korean-American film, stars Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, and John Magaro. The official synopsis of the show reads, “Nora and Hae Sung, two deeply connected childhood friends, are wrested apart after Nora’s family emigrates from South Korea. Twenty years later, they are reunited for one fateful week as they confront notions of love and destiny.”
For Song the recognition means the world. “It’s just so amazing. It’s such a great honor, and on the first movie, I think that’s really the coolest thing,” the filmmaker told Deadline.
“It feels so f**king cool and amazing, and I just genuinely am so f**king grateful for every single person…who’s ever come across being a part of this movie, anybody who’s even talked to me about this movie,” Song added.
Past Lives‘ Best Picture nomination came as part of a historic moment that saw three works by female filmmakers break into the category for the first time. Talking about this achievement, Song said, “I mean, I don’t know what I can say about whole state of the industry or anything like that because I just got here. It’s my first movie.”
“But I think it’s so amazing to see that because I feel like Past Lives is a lived-in thing from my own body and the way that I live my life, and I’m a woman. So, I think that’s all. But I’m honestly just over the moon,” she added.
Apart from the Oscars nomination, the drama also got five nominations at the Golden Globes, got a Gotham Award for Best Feature, among others. Talking about the recognisition, Song said, “I think that’s the thing that has carried us from the beginning…The way it’s connecting to the audience, I feel like I know more about strangers’ childhood sweetheart stories than anybody else because the movie that we made together, it makes the audience want to share,” she said.
“It makes them talk about their own lives and tell me their own stories.”
About Author
Leave a Reply