Hit Korean movie “Parasite” director and Oscar winner Bong Joon-ho has been named in TIME 100’s most influential people in the world list for 2020.
“Parasite” made history at the 92nd Academy Awards last February when it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay. The movie became the first non-English language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. It was also nominated for Best Film Editing and Best Production Design.
Bong Joon-ho is included in the TIME 100’s most influential artists along with The Weeknd, Ali Wong, Michael Jordan, Selena Gomez, J Balvin, JoJo Siwa, Halsey, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Jennifer Hudson, Yo-Yo Ma, Dapper Dan, Anaïs Mitchell, Michaela Coel, LASTESIS, Julie Mehretu and Ayushmann Khurrana.
“This is the filmmaker who, this year, has risen into the 2020 vision of the entire cinepassionate planet like a new sun. Whip-smart, highly skilled, supremely cineliterate, exuberant, irreverent, self-determining, deeply romantic, with a voracious delight in the absurd, highly principled, precision-tuned, compassionate to the last: his films have always been all this. It just seems to be time for the world to catch up,” wrote Oscar winner Tilda Swinton about Bong Joon-ho for the TIME 100 list.
She added, “He is the ultimate sophisticate cinematic fanboy whilst harboring not a drop of either snobbery or cynicism: he is good for cinema from start to finish. And the person? Sweet-hearted, loyal, amused, cozy, playful, sincere, especially hilarious when in his cups, fiercely familial, gloriously silly, unfailingly kind. Diamond.”
Other world leaders and personalities in the TIME 100 list for 2020 are:
The Pioneers are Megan Thee Stallion, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ibram X. Kendi, Nathan Law, Tomi Adeyemi, Astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir, Julie K. Brown, Cecilia Martinez, Maya Moore, Chase Strangio, Zhang Yongzhen, Tourmaline, Waad al-Kateab, Abubacarr Tambadou, Gabriela Cámara, Camilla Rothe, Rebecca Gomperts, Ravindra Gupta, Lauren Gardner, Shi Zhengli and Shiori Ito.
Named Leaders are Anthony Fauci, Kamala Harris, Tsai Ing-wen, John Roberts, Xi Jinping, Donald Trump, Caesar, Angela Merkel, Joe Biden, Jair Bolsonaro, Nancy Pelosi, Narendra Modi, William Barr, Anne Hidalgo, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Mary Kay Henry, Nemonte Nenquimo, Ursula von der Leyen, Jung Eun-kyeong (head of South Korea’s Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency), Bonnie Castillo, Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum and Yousef Al Otaiba.
The Titans are Gabrielle Union, Dwyane Wade, Sundar Pichai, Tyler Perry, MacKenzie Scott, Robert F. Smith, Lewis Hamilton, Jerome Powell, Eric Yuan, Patrick Mahomes, Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Greg Berlanti, Shari Redstone, Tony Elumelu, Zhong Nanshan, Kristalina Georgieva, Lisa Nishimura, General Charles Q. Brown Jr., Daniel Zhang, Gwynne Shotwell and Tunji Funsho.
Named Icons are Black Lives Matter Founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi, Ady Barkan, Billy Porter, Naomi Osaka, Angela Davis, Chi Chia-wei, Megan Rapinoe, Felipe Neto, Allyson Felix, Sister Norma Pimentel, David Hill, Arussi Unda, Nury Turkel, Lina Attalah and Bilkis.