'Parasite' Makes Oscars History with Best Picture Win: 'We Never Imagined This to Ever Happen'

Parasite is the best film of 2019!

Producer Kwak Sin Ae accepted the Oscar for Best Picture at Sunday night’s Academy Awards. The film was up against stiff competition which included 1917, Joker, Marriage Story, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, Ford v Ferrari and Little Women.

Parasite made Oscars history with the win as the first movie to receive Academy Awards for both Best International Feature Film and Best Picture.

The South Korean film is also the first non-English language movie to win Best Picture.

“We never imagined this to ever happen. We are so happy,” Kwak said through a translator. “I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now.”

She continued, “I express my deepest gratitude and respect for all members of the Academy for making this decision.”

As Kwak stepped away from the microphone to let executive producer Miky Lee speak, the stage lights began to dim and cameras cut to Jane Fonda, who presented the award. The crowd enthusiastically started chanting “Up! Up!” to let her finish the acceptance speech.

As the stage lights came back up, Lee began by thanking Bong Joon Ho, who won the Academy Award for Best Director earlier in the evening.

“I like everything about him. His smile, his crazy hair. The way he talks, the way he walks, especially the way he directs,” she said. “And what I really like about him is his sense of humor. And the fact is he can be really making fun of himself, and he never takes himself seriously. Thank you.”

Lee — a media mogul who owns a $4.1 billion entertainment empire — also thanked “everybody who’s been supporting Parasite” and her brother for “always supporting our building our dreams — even when it looked [like an] impossible dream.”

She added, “I really, really want to thank our Korean film audience: our moviegoers who’s been really supporting all our movies and never hesitated to give us straight-forward opinion on what they feel like their movies.”

Parasite won a total of four Oscars on Sunday, including Best Original Screenplay.

Following the big win, Bong told reporters in the press room backstage through a translator, “I’m just a very strange person. I’ve just done what I’ve always done with great artists.”

“It still feels very surreal,” he continued. “I feel like something will hit me and I will wake up from this dream.”

Bong himself then said in English, “It’s really f—— crazy!”

The critically-acclaimed movie took home the SAG Award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture last month.

Parasite follows the story of two distinct families, one living in extreme poverty and the other in extreme wealth, as they become unusually entangled.

The film was a blockbuster hit in South Korea before it became one of the most talked-about films of 2019 in the United States.

RELATED VIDEO: The Cast of ‘Parasite’ says Tom Hanks Loved the Movie

The mastermind behind the thriller, South Korea-born Bong, premiered the movie at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival last May, where it became the first Korean film to win the coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize of the festival.

The movie also won best foreign-language film at the 2020 Golden Globes.

The 92nd Annual Academy Awards aired live from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.