Chinese-American film ‘The Farewell’ rebukes Oscars snub with Spirit Award win
- ‘The Farewell’, featuring an all-Asian cast and filmed in both Mandarin and English, named best feature film
- Chinese star Zhao Shuzhen, 85, who won the best supporting actress, unable to make it to ceremony because of coronavirus travel restrictions in China
Chinese-American film The Farewell delivered a rebuke to its Oscars snub at the Spirit Awards, as South Korea’s Parasite added a final burst of momentum to its much-hyped Academy Award challenge.
The awards, held on a beach outside Los Angeles a day before the Oscars, honour films with smaller budgets, and are often held up as an antidote to the Academy’s more mainstream – and less diverse – tastes.
The Farewell, about a family which reunites to visit a grandmother in China who doesn’t know she’s dying, won best picture, having missed out on any Oscars nominations.
Lulu Wang, the film’s director, said that “so many people said nobody is going to want to see the film (because) it’s not Chinese enough, it’s not American enough”.
“For people to just see it as a family story, as a universal story, that’s really meaningful.”
Wang was one of several acclaimed female directors who failed to win Oscars recognition, but said she was not surprised by her omission.
