Youn Yuh-jung made history on Sunday as she became the first Korean performer to walk away from the Academy Awards with an acting prize, after picking up the best supporting actress award . She was nominated for the American indie Minari , about a family of Korean immigrants in Arkansas in the 1980s. As the first Korean actor to even be nominated for an acting award at the Oscars, Youn’s win is garnering massive media attention in South Korea, where it is dominating the headlines. The media hubbub surrounding her awards campaign these past few months recalled the similar excitement surrounding director Bong Joon-ho and his film Parasite , which triumphed at the Academy Awards last year with four historic awards , including best picture and best director. Congratulations quickly poured in from Youn’s acting peers. Lee Byung-hun, one of the few Korean stars to have broken into Hollywood, shared a picture of Youn and her Oscar statuette to his Instagram, captioning it “impossible is not a fact, it’s just an opinion”. Lee and Youn worked together on the family comedy-drama Keys to the Heart . Jeon Do-yeon, Youn’s co-star in The Housemaid and Beasts Clawing at Straws , said in her congratulation that it was “the award news we could all believe in”. Parasite star Choi Woo-shik, who appeared with her in the reality TV programme Youn’s Stay , also offered his congratulations, mentioning that “as we watched the broadcast it was the thing everyone wanted the most and I cried as I watched”. ‘If it moves me I’m into it’: Steven Yeun on Minari Jung Yu-mi, who appeared with her in the reality show Youn’s Kitchen , also congratulated her on the win, and added “since you are the first Korean actor to win, I’m even more glad and proud”. Many other congratulatory notes have appeared on Instagram, from Korean actors such as Bae Doo-na ( Sense8 ), Kim Hye-soo ( Home Sweet Home ), Han Ji-min ( Salut d’Amour ) and Kim Go-eun ( Canola ). The Korean Film Archive also congratulated Youn and took the opportunity to announce a retrospective of the actress’ work in its cinematheque, to be held in mid-May. Youn was only the second Asian performer to win in the best supporting actress category, following Miyoshi Umeki’s win in 1957 for Sayonara . The last Asian nominee was Rinko Kikuchi for Babel in 2007. In her speech, Youn dedicated her award to director Kim Ki-young, who gave her her start on the big screen, through 1971’s Woman of Fire , for which she earned her first award – best actress at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia, Spain. Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook