"Parasite" producers Kwak Sin-ae (left) and Bong Joon-ho (right) accept the award for Best Picture for "Parasite" during the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on Feb 9, 2020. (MARK RALSTON / AFP)

LOS ANGELES - South Korean social satire Parasite won the Oscar for best picture on Sunday, making history as the first film not in the English language to win the movie industry’s highest honor.

Parasite, about the gap between rich and poor in modern Seoul, won a total of four Oscars, including best director - becoming the first person from the Asian nation to win the award - and screenplay for Bong Joon Ho and best international feature.

Parasite is by far Bong Joon-ho's most successful film to date, reaching audiences beyond his home country and winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival

Bong, 50, beat Hollywood veterans including Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino for his Korean language movie about the violent clash between haves and have-nots in contemporary Seoul.

It was a remarkable outcome for a film that played with subtitles in the United States, beating movies by major studios and Hollywood veterans such as Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. The win also came at the end of an awards season that had been criticized for lack of diversity.

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In his acceptance remarks, Bong gave a shout-out to both directors.

“When I was in school, I studied Martin Scorsese’s films. Just to be nominated was a huge honor. I never thought I would win,” he said as the audience rose to its feet in applause.

“When people in the US were not familiar with my film, Quentin always put my films on his list. He’s here,” Bong added. “Quentin, I love you!”

And then reprising a remark he made after winning, best international picture, he said: “I will drink until next morning. Thank you.”

South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho accepts the award for Best Director for "Parasite" during the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on Feb 9, 2020. (MARK RALSTON / AFP)

Bong is known for weaving social themes into stories that play as both comedies and thrillers. His movies include the surreal animal activist movie Okja, climate change sci-fi drama Snowpiercer, and serial killer drama Memories of Murder.

Parasite is by far his most successful film to date, reaching audiences beyond his home country and winning the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

“I did know that it had its own strength and that it would provide a lot of food for thought for people but I didn’t realize it would be so successful in the US and Japan and France,” he said.

“A lot of American audience members have told us that Parasite was very unpredictable and I think that’s what the audience really enjoyed,” he told Reuters.

“I am speechless,” said Kwak Sin Ae, one of Parasite‘s co-producers. “We never imagined this would ever happen. We are so happy. I feel like a very opportune moment in history is happening right now.”

Bong has described the main themes of Parasite as “courtesy toward human beings, human dignity.”

He began his movie career by co-founding a cinema club on the campus of his university in South Korea in the early 1990s and going on to write and making short films.

He is currently developing a limited television series based on Parasite for US cable channel HBO.

This year’s other directing nominees were Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Sam Mendes for 1917, and Todd Phillips for Joker.

South Korean social media erupted in celebration on Monday after the dark comedy Parasite netted the country’s first-ever wins at the Academy Awards.

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho accepts the award for Best International Feature Film for "Parasite" during the 92nd Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, California on Feb 9, 2020. (MARK RALSTON / AFP)

Hashtags Parasite and DirectorBongJoonho were the most trending on Twitter South Korea, while the movie name was the most searched on the local Naver web portal after the wins.

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“Just like BTS had a popular appeal by casting the problems the youth go through everywhere in the world, Parasite gained global understanding by demonstrating the issue of the gap between the rich and poor,” pop culture critic Kim Hern-sik said, referring to the K-pop boyband that has found wide success in the United States and around the world.

While South Korea’s film industry is one of the largest in the world, the Korean-language Parasite made unprecedented waves in international markets.