Celine Song’s ‘Past Lives’ get Oscar nominations

Korean-Canadian Celine Song's "Past Lives" was nominated for the 2024 Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, marking the first nominee for the Academy Awards as a female director with a Korean background. Director Song is the daughter of Director Song Neung-han, who directed the film “Number 3” (1997). The nomination is particularly meaningful, considering that this is her directorial debut.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) nominated “Past Lives” and Celine Song for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay for the 96th Academy Awards, respectively. This marks the third instance of either a Korean director or a director with Korean heritage securing an Oscar nomination, following Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite” in 2020 and Korean-American director Lee Issac Chung’s “Minari.”

First released at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, “Past Lives” deals with a childhood sweetheart encountering in New York 20 years after they become adults. It is a romantic drama, which delves into the meaning of life, relationship, and love. Partly based on Song’s own life, “Past Lives” garnered attention in several preceding film festivals. It was invited to the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival and received the Best Picture Award from the 58th National Society of Film Critics and the Best Feature at the 33rd Gotham Awards. The film received nominations in five categories at the 81st Golden Globe Awards but did not secure any awards. At the BAFTA Film Awards, it has also landed three nominations: Best Actor, Film Not in the English Language, and Best Original Screenplay.

“Thank you so much to the Academy for this tremendous recognition — it’s such an unbelievable honor. I am overwhelmed with emotion and gratitude. And for my first film… crazy,” Song said. “There’s an Eastern concept in our film called In-Yun, which is the miraculous connection and love we have with each other just by being in the same place at the same time. It results from thousands of lives we’ve shared before this one. Our entire filmmaking team felt this deeply while making Past Lives. Today’s news makes me feel like many of our filmmaking peers felt the same way. Thank you.”


Ji-Sun Choi aurinko@donga.com