The one film everyone’s talking about right now is Parasite, Bong Joon Ho’s masterful, genre-bending suspense thriller which just swept the Oscars and made history with its stack of wins. While the film has finally arrived in UK cinemas this past week, in some regions it’s proved tricky to track down – but not anymore. After bagging Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best International Feature, the film is significantly expanding its UK cinema run and opening in hundreds more screens.
After debuting in 136 venues across the country, Parasite will now be coming to over 400 cinema screens in the UK and Ireland courtesy of distributors Curzon. The wider release will begin this coming weekend, from Friday 14 February – how’s that for a Valentine’s treat? “The weekend box office broke records for subtitled film and individual records at Curzon venues and with our partner cinemas,” says Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull. “With the film expanding this weekend to around 400 cinemas, we hope the film will be embraced even further by audiences in the UK and Ireland.”
Parasite’s major wins are significant not just for beating out competition from celebrated filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese, but for being the first South Korean film to win Best International Feature Film, the first foreign-language movie to win Best Picture (French comedy-drama The Artist won in 2011 but was notably a silent movie), and plenty more milestones besides. Keep an eye on your local cinema listings if you’d been struggling to find a nearby screening – and in the meantime, read Empire’s film-by-film guide to every Bong Joon Ho film and delve into his astonishing back catalogue.