Minari (2020)

Minari (Korean: 미나리; lit. 'water celery'; [minaɾi]) is a 2020 American drama film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It stars Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Noel Kate Cho, Youn Yuh-jung, and Will Patton. A semi-autobiographical take on Chung's upbringing, its plot follows a family of South Korean immigrants who move to rural Arkansas during the 1980s.

Minari had its world premiere at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival on January 26, 2020, winning both the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award. It began a one-week virtual release on December 11, 2020, and was released theatrically and via virtual cinema on February 12, 2021, by A24.

The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Chung's direction and screenplay, Yeun's and Youn's performances, and the score. Both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute named Minari one of the best films of 2020, and it has since been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century. At the 93rd Academy Awards, it earned six nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Supporting Actress for Youn, who became the first Korean actor to win an Oscar. Minari also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film, was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture, and earned six nominations at the 74th British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film Not in the English Language.