Hollywood and left-wing elites, including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA), are upset that the critically acclaimed Minari will compete in the foreign language film category at the Golden Globe Awards, even though the movie is predominantly in Korean.

They are arguing that the ruling falsely implies that being American means speaking English, and are calling the decision “bullshit,” “xenophobic,” and “racist.”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. (HFPA) announced this week that Minari will compete in the foreign language category, thus making it ineligible for the evening’s top award for best dramatic movie. A similar fate befell Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, both in 2006; as well as last year’s The Farewell.

Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood and Honey also landed in the foreign language Globes category in 2011.

Like Minari, those movies were American productions that the HFPA nevertheless deemed “foreign language films” due to the Globes’ rules regarding movies having at least 51 percent of their dialogue in a language other than English.

Minari, starring The Walking Dead‘s Steve Yeun, is an indie production about a Korean immigrant family who settles in rural Arkansas. The movie, which debuted to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival, is currently in limited release and is set to go wide in February.

The Globes decision has upset prominent Hollywood and left-wing elites. Rep. Lieu cried foul: “Why does a best picture have to be in English? Globe is in your name. Get it?”

The Farewell director Lulu Wang called the HFPA’s rules “antiquated,” saying that the decision equates being American with speaking English.

The Lego Movie co-director Phil Lord called it a “harmful decision.”

The popular Angry Asian Man Twitter account called the decision “complete bullshit.”

Actor Andrew Phung, who stars in the Netflix sitcom Kim’s Convenience, called the decision “sad and disappointing.”

HuffPo journalist Marina Fang said the ruling reinforced “racist” and “xenophobic” stereotypes about Asian Americans.

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta called the Globes decision “bullshit.”

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