Robert De Niro accept the lifetime achievement award at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP)

LOS ANGELES — Robert De Niro, considered one of the finest motion picture performers of his generation, was saluted on Sunday with a lifetime achievement the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award from his acting peers, and used the occasion to take a veiled jab at US President Donald Trump.

Parasite, the Korean language social satire about the wealth gap in South Korea, was the first film in a foreign language to win the top prize of best cast ensemble in the 26 year-history of the SAG awards

South Korean thriller Parasite was the upset winner at the awards, while Joaquin Phoenix and Renee Zellweger were named best actors, cementing their roles as frontrunners at the Oscars next month.

The two-time Academy Award winner and star of Oscar-nominated mob film The Irishman received the annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) tribute celebrating a 50-year career in films.

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De Niro took another swipe at Trump, without mentioning him by name saying, “There’s right, and there’s wrong and there’s common sense, and there’s abuse of power, and as a citizen I have as much right as anyone else ... to voice my opinion,” the actor said. “And if I have a bigger voice because of my situation, I’m going to use it whenever I see a blatant abuse of power. And that’s all I’m going say about that tonight.”

Park So-dam, from left, Lee Sun Gyun, Choi Woo-shik, Lee Jeong-eun and Kang-Ho Song accept the award for outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture for "Parasite" at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP)

In 2018, he launched an expletive-laden attack on Trump on live television as a presenter on stage of the Tony Awards for Broadway theater. Trump responded on Twitter by calling De Niro “a very low-key individual.”

De Niro joins previous SAG lifetime recipients including Alan Alda, Elizabeth Taylor, Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood and Debbie Reynolds.

Parasite, the Korean language social satire about the wealth gap in South Korea, was the first film in a foreign language to win the top prize of best cast ensemble in the 26 year-history of the SAG awards.

Despite an unknown cast, it beat homegrown Hollywood movies The Irishman and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood which both have A-list stars.

Joaquin Phoenix poses in the press room with the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role for "Joker" at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (JORDAN STRAUSS / INVISION / AP)

Speaking through an interpreter Parasite director Bong Joon Ho said backstage; “It is true that the momentum is building and we are a part of the awards race and campaign. But what happened today, what’s truly important, is that these actors were acknowledged by fellow peers as the best ensemble cast of this year.”

The SAG awards, which focus entirely on performances, are closely watched as an indicator of Oscar success because actors form the largest voting group in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Phoenix’s terrifying performance as a loner who finds fame through violence in Joker has swept awards season.

Renee Zellweger accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a leading role for "Judy" at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP)

“I am standing on the shoulders of my favorite actor - Heath Ledger,” Phoenix said on Sunday, referring to the actor who won a posthumous Oscar in 2009 for his turn playing the comic book villain.

Zellweger, likewise, has picked up most of the prizes so far for her performance as a desperate, aging Judy Garland in biopic Judy.

Brad Pitt picked up another trophy for his supporting role as a charming stunt man in Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, while Laura Dern was named best supporting actress for playing a ruthless divorce lawyer in Netflix domestic drama Marriage Story.

Brad Pitt accepts the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a supporting role for "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP)

In television, Jennifer Aniston was an upset winner for her role as a TV anchor in “The Morning Show,” bringing the second award this year for the new Apple TV+ streaming service. Her co-star Billy Crudup won a Critics Choice award last week.

READ MORE: Oscars: 'Parasite' seen to break language barrier, 'Joker' leads

Comedy “The Marvelous Mrs Maisel” and British royal drama “The Crown” took the prizes for their TV ensemble casts. But “Mrs Maisel” actress Alex Borstein said the comedy prize should have gone to quirky British comedy “Fleabag.”

Laura Dern accepts the award for outstanding performance by a female actor in a supporting role for "Marriage Story" at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, Jan 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (CHRIS PIZZELLO / AP)

Several of the contenders for best picture at the Oscars on Feb 9 were not nominated for the top prize of best movie cast ensemble at SAG.

Those left out include immersive World War One film 1917, the big winner at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday, as well as dark comic book story Joker, heart-wrenching divorce drama Marriage Story, and novel adaptation Little Women.