hankyoreh

Actors Alan Kim and Youn Yuh-jung in a scene from the film “Minari.” (courtesy of Pancinema)

Youn Yuh-jung collected her 21st acting award for her performance in the film “Minari.”

At the Washington, D.C. Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA) award ceremony on Feb. 8, Youn won Best Supporting Actress honors and Alan Kim won for Best Youth Performance for their roles in the film “Minari.”

An autobiographical film by Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung (Korean name Chung I-sak), “Minari” tells the story of a Korean family that moves to Arkansas in the 1980s. Youn plays grandmother Soon-ja, who comes from Korea to live with the family, while Kim plays her grandson David.

The honors bring the film’s total global award haul to date to 61. Youn in particular is seen as an increasingly strong Oscar contender, having captured 21 acting awards in the US for her role. The US magazine Variety recently named Youn as its top pick to win this year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.

According to the US film site Deadline, “Minari” was nominated the same day in 10 categories for the Critics Choice awards selected by the Broadcast Film Critics Association (BFCA), including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film. Youn was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, while lead Steven Yeun was nominated for Best Actor.

Deadline reported that while David Fincher’s “Mank” led with nominations in 12 categories, “Minari” was “just behind with 10 nominations.”

This stands in contrast with the Golden Globe nominations announced on Feb. 3, where “Minari” had only one nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Hollywood awards prediction site GoldDerby said, “The fact that a smaller-scale indie like ‘Minari’ also scored nominations in the double digits [for Critics Choice nominations] is a coup.”

GoldDerby listed “Minari” fourth in its predictions for the likely winner of the Best Picture Oscar. Youn placed third among its predictions for Best Supporting Actress nominees, while Yeun placed sixth as a potential Best Actor nominee.

“Minari” is scheduled to open officially in South Korean theaters on Mar. 3.

By Suh Jung-min, staff reporter

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]