Bong Joon-ho, the noted South Korean film director and screenwriter, was born September 14, 1969.
He garnered international acclaim for his second feature film Memories of Murder (2003), before achieving commercial success with subsequent films, The Host (2006) and Snowpiercer (2013), both of which are among the highest-grossing films of all time in South Korea.
Cannes Film Fest Record
Two of his films have screened in competition at the Cannes Film Fest: Okja, which premiered in 2017 at Cannes, and Parasite, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, thus becoming the first Korean director to win the Palme d’Or.
Parasite also won Best Foreign Language Film at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards, with Bong also nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay.
Parasite became the first South Korean film to receive a nomination in any category at the Academy Awards.
In addition to the nomination for Best International Feature Film, he also received nominations for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture.
Signature as Auteur
In 2017, Metacritic ranked Bong sixteenth on its list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century. His films feature timely social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden mood shifts.
