“Minari,” the A24 drama starring Steven Yeun, will now begin a wide theater opening on Feb. 12 following a brief awards-qualifying run in New York and Los Angeles on Dec. 11, an individual with knowledge told TheWrap.
Lee Isaac Chung’s film won the top two prizes at Sundance earlier this year and has figured to be a major awards contender for A24 and for Yeun in the Best Actor race, but it had been without a formal release date. After its awards qualifying run, it will have a wider opening in February and then and even wider release on March 15, 2021.
Following its initial debut at Sundance, the film still sits with a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and could be an Oscar player for Best Picture and Best Director, as well as for Best Supporting Actress for Yuh-Jung Youn.
“Minari” is set in the 1980s and is about a Korean family who moves to Arkansas to start a farm and a new life. Chun wrote his period drama based on his own childhood and father while growing up in the Midwest.
And when the director and cast dropped by TheWrap’s studio at Sundance, they explained not only the film’s poetic title inspired by an unusually tough and bitter vegetable, but also why he finally managed to tell this very personal, anecdotal story.
“Why don’t I tell the story I ultimately wanted to make all along,” Chung said of “Minari.” “I’d like them to feel something. I think that’s the big thing. It’s not so much an idea or something that they’re thinking through but something that they feel and maybe can’t articulate. If something touches them and moves them, I’ll just be incredibly happy that they share in that experience.”
Check out the trailer for “Minari” here.
Variety first reported the news.