President Donald Trump on Thursday appeared to take issue with the winner of the Oscars for best picture, the South Korean film “Parasite,” at a rally in Colorado.
“By the way, how bad were the Academy Awards this year, did you see it?” Trump said at a rally in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the crowd booed. “And the winner is a movie from South Korea — what the hell was that all about?”
“Parasite,” a film about a poor family of grifters who worm their way into the lives of a rich but naive household, which was directed by Bong Joon-ho, won best picture at the Feb. 9 ceremony. Bong also won best director.
Trump said at the “Keep America Great” rally, that: “We got enough problems with South Korea, with trade. On top of it they give them the best movie of the year? Was it good? I don’t know.”
“You know, I’m looking for like — let’s get ‘Gone with the Wind,'” Trump said, referring to the 1939 epic that won eight Oscars after it hit the screens around eight decades ago. “Can we get like ‘Gone with the Wind’ back, please? ‘Sunset Boulevard.’ So many great movies.”
“Sunset Boulevard,” released in 1950, did not win the best picture Oscar, although it was nominated, but managed to nab three others.
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Neon, the company that distributed “Parasite” in the United States, tweeted its response to Trump’s remarks. “Understandable, he can’t read,” it tweeted, adding the hashtags for “Parasite,” best picture and Bong2020.
The wins for “Parasite” were warmly greeted by South Koreans, and the recognition has been called a historic win because it was the first non-English-language film to win best picture in the history of the Academy Awards.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in started his staff meeting after the awards show with a round of applause for “Parasite.”
“Parasite has moved the hearts of people around the world with a most uniquely Korean story,” he wrote in a message of congratulations that he then posted on social media.
Trump said at the Colorado Springs rally, “I thought it was best foreign film, right? Best foreign movie. No. It was the — did this ever happen before?” (It had not).
“Parasite” also won for best international feature at the 92nd Academy Awards.
Trump also complained about actor Brad Pitt, who Trump said “got up and said a little wiseguy statement.”
Pitt, accepting the best supporting actor trophy for his turn as a laconic stuntman in Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” alluded to the fact that the Senate did not allow witnesses to testify at Trump’s impeachment trial.
“They told me you only have 45 seconds up here, which is 45 seconds more than the Senate gave John Bolton this week,” said Pitt, 56, referring to Trump’s former national security adviser. “I’m thinking maybe Quentin does a movie about it. In the end, the adults do the right thing.”
The Republican-controlled Senate on Feb. 5 acquitted Trump almost entirely along party lines.
