New on DVD: Two Oscar winners

Two best-picture nominees featuring Oscar-winning performances top the DVD releases for the week of May 18.

“Minari”: Written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung, this semi-autobiographical story follows a Korean American family that moves from California to rural Arkansas to start a farm.

“The story is mostly seen through the eyes of the precocious youngest child, David (newcomer Alan S. Kim), something of a stand-in for Chung himself,” explains critic Glenn Whipp, “as he based the screenplay on his experience of growing up on a small farm in Lincoln, Ark., in the 1980s.”

The film stars Steven Yeun and Yeri Han as the parents, and Yuh-Jung Youn as the family matriarch who arrives midway through the film. Youn, a star in South Korea, largely swept the awards season for her performance in “Minari,” culminating in a historic win for best supporting actress at the Academy Awards last month.

“The Father”: Yeun was nominated for best actor for his performance as Jacob in “Minari,” but lost out to Anthony Hopkins for his devastating portrayal of a man with dementia in “The Father,” the week’s other award-season release.

“Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father’ is not the dementia drama one might expect,” Tribune News Service critic Katie Walsh wrote. “This lived experience is beautifully, and heartbreakingly, expressed by star Anthony Hopkins, playing a man named Anthony who is grappling with his disintegrating reality and unreliable memories.”

Zeller took home the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.