Certain Oscars snubs are unavoidable. After all, every year brings with it a fresh batch of incredible films, and the Academy only has so much space for nominations. Each awards season necessarily involves some shocks and surprises, like this round of nominations leaving out Chase Infiniti and Jesse Plemons.
But there is one snub I was particularly dismayed about: Park Chan-wook's twisty, cruel, and absurd pitch-black comedy thriller No Other Choice. The film follows Lee Byung-hun's Yoo Man-su, a recently laid-off worker in a paper factory who decides his best bet of rejoining the industry is staging a fake job opening and killing off his competition.
For your (lack of) consideration
Despite knowing Park had a history of being snubbed, I thought No Other Choice would finally be the film that propelled him to the Dolby Theater. It's more palatable to mainstream audiences than Park's most famous work, his ultraviolent and near-nihilistically bleak Vengeance Trilogy (including Oldboy, later remade by Spike Lee), and it's anchored by a pitch-perfect performance from global star Lee Byung-hun (an actor with decades of experience, but who is probably most recognizable as Squid Game's villainous Front Man), with themes that are urgently relevant. And, like every Park Chan-wook movie, it features stunning transitions and beautiful camerawork. What's not to love?
And yet, No Other Choice was notably absent from the 2026 Oscars nominations, despite a dedicated awards campaign from Neon. In fact, Neon even playfully poked fun at the snub with a particularly cheeky billboard that read: "F your consideration."
What makes the snub even more frustrating is that No Other Choice made it to the shortlist for Best International Feature Film, but failed to get across the line into the category. Of course, it's entirely possible that, this year, the field was so competitive that No Other Choice just couldn't fit into the running. But that doesn't explain why this is an enduring pattern for Park.
A disappointing trend
The most egregious snub of Park's work actually occurred a decade ago with The Handmaiden, his 2016 reimagining of Sarah Waters' Victorian crime novel Fingersmith. The film is nothing short of a masterpiece, with lush, intricate set design, outstanding lead performances, and a deeply moving story with breathtaking twists and turns. It took home the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and was in the running for the Palme d'Or. So, why was it snubbed at the Oscars? Quite simply, Korea chose not to submit The Handmaiden for Best International Feature Film: Kim Jee-woon's action thriller The Age of Shadows was selected instead. That doesn't mean the Academy is blameless, though; the rule is only one film per country can be submitted, which is unfairly limiting for international cinema.
When Korea did submit Park's 2022 film Decision to Leave, however – the first of his films to be submitted for Oscars consideration – the neo-noir made it onto the shortlist but ultimately didn't secure any nominations. That film, too, deserved recognition for its stunning cinematography, its complex storytelling, and its quietly powerful lead performances.
Similarly, No Other Choice might not have made the cut for Best International Feature Film this year, but it was more than worthy of categories like Best Cinematography, or Best Actor for Lee Byung-hun, who gives a masterclass in physical comedy. After all, Best International Feature Film isn't the only category non-Hollywood films are up for.
Of course, it's no secret that international films have struggled for widespread recognition at the Oscars, though that is thankfully changing. Many will point to the extraordinary success of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as the moment things truly began to shift. But, while that capitalist-critiquing black comedy memorably swept the awards back in 2020, it was actually the first Korean film to ever receive an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film, and only the second to even make the shortlist (the first was Lee Chang-dong's thriller Burning).
Six years later, Parasite remains the only Korean movie to be nominated in the category, though six films – including Decision to Leave and No Other Choice – have been submitted. One film in 97 years is especially shocking considering Korea's cultural dominance: K-dramas, K-pop, and K-beauty ride a huge wave of popularity in the US and beyond, and have done for years. American production Minari and American/Korean co-production Past Lives also enjoyed well-deserved Oscars recognition, including a Best Actress win for Minari's Youn Yuh-jung (making her the first Korean actor to win an Academy Award), which only makes the situation all the more baffling.
With this track record for the Academy, perhaps it's not surprising at all that none of Park Chan-wook's filmography has ever been up for these particular golden statuettes, despite awards recognition elsewhere.
Art for art's sake
Of course, it's completely valid to argue that awards recognition means little when the art is so striking. But, as Park himself pointed out after Decision to Leave was snubbed, recognition at the Oscars can have a very real effect on a filmmaker's career. "It would be hypocrisy to say that art is the only thing that matters," Park told The New Yorker. "If you get an award, it might mean you have more power, more creative freedom, in your next project. It might mean you can have a bigger budget. Maybe you can have more freedom and a bigger budget, depending on how big the award is."
Park has been open that No Other Choice struggled to secure funding when he wanted to make the film in English, as he did with his Hollywood debut, the 2013 modern Southern Gothic Stoker, which stars Nicole Kidman. "I initially wanted it to be an English-language film in accordance with the original novel, but none of the studios offered the level of budget that I wanted for the project," Park told us last year of No Other Choice. "And that's when I thought to myself, 'Why can't I just make this into a Korean film?'" Sadly, Park is subject to the same capitalist forces he so expertly skewers in the movie.
Fortunately for global cinema, though, Park was able to make the film. "And ever since that thought occurred to me, everything has very quickly developed, and, after that, I've been able to cast amazing actors like Lee Byung-hun," he continued.
Park hasn't yet revealed what his next project will be, but I can only hope that, whatever he turns his formidable talent to next, it's another classically knotty, morally complex, and bleak offering from a true master at work. And, I can only hope that, this time, it won't be snubbed yet again.
No Other Choice is available to rent on Prime Video in the US and streams on Mubi in the UK from March 13. You can fill out your watchlist with our guide to all the most exciting upcoming movies of the year.
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