New York Times ranks Parasite best film of the 21st century

In June 2025, the New York Times published its list of the 100 best films of the 21st century, drawn from a survey of film industry figures and critics. Bong Joon-ho's Parasite, a South Korean black comedy released in 2019, came first.

The film follows a poor Seoul family who infiltrate the household of a wealthy one, and it turns into a sharp study of class and inequality. It had already won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2019 and then the Oscar for Best Picture in 2020, the first non-English-language film to take that prize.

The ranking mattered because it confirmed Parasite's standing as more than a one-year success. Placing a Korean film above work by Hollywood and European directors was read as a sign of how far Korean cinema had moved from the margins of world film culture to its centre, and it set the scene for later praise of directors such as Lee Chang-dong.