[Current Culture] The Difference Between the Oscar and the Academy Awards

A few years ago, when the movie Parasite won four Academy Awards, someone asked me this question.

"Is the Academy Award better than the Oscar?"

For those who know, it’s a ridiculous question, but for those who don’t, it’s understandable. To answer right away, the trophy given to winners at the Academy Awards ceremony is nicknamed the Oscar. In other words, "winning an Academy Award" and "holding up an Oscar trophy" mean the same thing. There is no exact record of why the Academy trophy is called the Oscar, but there are several theories. The most plausible one is that an employee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes the Academy Awards, said the male face engraved on the trophy looked exactly like his uncle Oscar, and that’s how the nickname came about.

In fact, the Academy Awards ceremony is thoroughly centered on Hollywood in the United States. The selection criteria for nominees and the judges tend to favor Hollywood films. Director Bong Joon-ho’s half-joking, half-serious remark that the Academy Awards are "local" reflects this context. Recently, the Academy has been trying to erase its conservative, white-centric Hollywood roots, but the origins remain. In contrast, this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where director Park Chan-wook and actor Song Kang-ho won Best Director and Best Actor respectively, is much more global than the Academy Awards. People often group the Berlin Film Festival and Venice Film Festival together with Cannes as the "Big Three Film Festivals," much like debates about the top three guitarists?it's a popular way to group things in threes.

While winners at the Academy Awards all receive the same Oscar trophy, European film festivals have different names and shapes for their awards. Since there are so many types of awards, let’s focus on the so-called "Grand Prize" equivalents: Cannes Film Festival awards the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm), Venice Film Festival awards the Golden Lion, and Berlin Film Festival awards the Golden Bear.

While we’re at it, here’s one more piece of trivia about international film festivals. Among the so-called Big Three international film festivals, there is one where Korean films have yet to win the grand prize. Which one is it? The answer is the Berlin Film Festival. In 2012, director Kim Ki-duk’s film Pieta won the Golden Lion at Venice, and in 2019, director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but no Korean film has yet won the Golden Bear at Berlin. That’s a bit of film festival trivia that’s good to know but not essential for enjoying movies.

It is no longer surprising for Korean works to win awards at overseas film festivals or music award ceremonies. K-pop, movies, dramas, webtoons... our cultural arts are flowing into countries around the world and captivating their people. For readers who might suspect this as mere nationalistic pride, I ask you to set aside your doubts. As someone with 25 years of experience in this field who witnessed firsthand the days when Korean popular culture was busy copying Japanese or American works, I testify that such times are gone. Culture flows like water?from higher places to lower?and our culture is definitely flowing outward. So feel free to be proud. K-Culture is real.

Lee Jae-ik, Novelist