Bong Joon Ho

Bong Joonho Korean 봉준호 Korean pronunciationpoːŋ tɕuːnho  poːŋdʑunɦo born September 14 1969 is a South Korean filmmaker The recipient of three Academy Awards his work is characterised by emphasis on social and class themes genremixing dark comedy and sudden tone shifts He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film the black comedy Barking Dogs Never Bite 2000 before achieving both critical and commercial success with his subsequent films the crime thriller Memories of Murder 2003 the monster film The Host 2006 the science fiction action film Snowpiercer 2013 which served as Bongs English language debut and the acclaimed black comedy thriller Parasite 2019 all of which are among the highestgrossing films in South Korea with Parasite also being the highestgrossing South Korean film in history All of Bongs films have been South Korean productions However Snowpiercer Okja 2017 and Mickey 17 2025 are Hollywood coproductions with significant use of the English language Two of his films have been screened in competitions at the Cannes Film Festival Okja in 2017 and Parasite in 2019 the latter earned the Palme dOr the first for a South Korean film Considered an immediate favourite by the Academy Awards Parasite became the first South Korean film to receive Academy Award nominations with Bong winning Best Picture Best Director and Best Original Screenplay making Parasite the first film in the awards history not in English to win Best Picture In 2017 Bong was included on Metacritics list of the 25 best film directors of the 21st century In 2020 Bong was included in Times annual list of 100 Most Influential People and Bloomberg 50