Few child actors ever get to star in an award-winning film, much less win a prestigious award for their performance. That fact appeared to hit home for 8-year-old Alan Kim, as he broke down in tears accepting his Critics’ Choice Award for Best Young Actor/Actress, making for one of the sweetest moments in awards show history.
Kim showed up to the awards (virtually, of course) decked out in a tuxedo, and his parents had even laid out a red carpet in their entryway to give him a taste of the real awards show experience. When his name was announced as the Critics’ Choice winner for his role in the film “Minari,” his reaction was priceless.
Grinning from ear to ear, Kim started off his acceptance speech by thanking “the critics who voted” and his family. But as soon as he started naming his family members, he burst into tears. “Oh my goodness, I’m crying,” he said. Through sobs, he kept going with his list, naming members of the cast, the production company, and the crew that worked on the film.
“I hope I will be in other movies,” he added. Then, the cutest—he pinched his own cheeks and asked, “Is this a dream? I hope it’s not a dream.”
Finally, he said “Thank you” in Korean before pulling himself together and giving a smile and victorious arm raise.
Watch:
People loved Kim’s sweet authenticity and raw show of emotion.
The film he was in, “Minari,” also won the evening’s award for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie had also been nominated in the Best Picture category, and though it didn’t win, the nomination itself was notable after the film had been excluded from the category at the Golden Globes.
Though the film is an American story set in Arkansas, stars American actors, was directed by an American director, and was produced by an American production company, the fact that the film was more than 50% of the film’s dialogue was in Korean made it only eligible for the Foreign Language category at the Golden Globes. That exclusion prompted an outcry for the Hollywood Foreign Press Association to change their film category qualifications.
“Minari” tells the story of a Korean-American immigrant family that moves from California to Arkansas, and is an example of the authentic Asian-American representation that’s long been missing from American films. Classifying it as foreign simply because the ratio of English to Korean language wasn’t English enough reflects an outdated view of what it means to be American, as telling true American stories often involves such immigrant transitions. It also reeks of Eurocentric bias when only 30% of the film “Inglorious Bastards” was in English—with the rest of the film being in German, French, and Italian—and yet it wasn’t categorized as a foreign language film like “Minari” was.
At any rate, the awards for the film are a win for authentic representation, and Alan Kim’s acceptance speech is a win for us all.
Thank you, Alan, for showing us what a pure heart and genuine gratitude look like.