Sunday afternoon’s screening of Parasite, the closing movie in this year’s Martha’s Vineyard International Film Festival, left some audience members a little stunned as they left the Capawock Theatre after the show. How had this sly social satire of haves and have-nots turned so shocking? And what to make of the magical-realist ending?

The winner of this year’s Palme d’Or — the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival — Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s film layers a comic plot with biting social comment, adding flashes of horror that illuminate his deeper message the way lightning brings day to night.

And for six days, Richard Paradise did not sleep. — Jeanna Shepard

Mr. Bong’s work in this film reminds Richard Paradise, executive director of the Martha’s Vineyard Film Society, of Quentin Tarantino. It’s an approach that is “prevalent in filmmaking these days,” Mr. Paradise said, as he welcomed guests to the closing party at La Soffitta/Waterside Market following the screening.

“Filmmakers are always trying to throw you off guard,” he said. “They get you comfortable, and then switch it.”

Parasite was preceded by the short film Being, winner of Saturday’s juried competition of nine international shorts. Director Cathleen Dean was on hand for the screenings and joined the Sunday evening party with other festival celebrities including actor Michael Tow of the film Lucky Grandma, which played earlier Sunday.

Arriving on the Vineyard just in time to speak before the Lucky Grandma screening at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center, Mr. Tow told the audience the comedy came into being thanks to a $1 million grant from AT&T and the Tribeca Film Festival.

Michael Tow of the film Lucky Grandma spoke to the audience after the screening.

At the closing night party, guests dined on a special Korean menu with ribs and noodles served both downstairs at Waterside and upstairs at La Soffitta. A jazz group featuring vocalist Dave Hannon played hot standards upstairs as festival-goers swapped thoughts about the films they’d seen over the past six days.

Max Skjöldebrand and Jane Coakley attended nine films, nearly half the total of 20 Mr. Paradise presented at the Capawock and Film Center during this year’s festival. Ms. Coakley, who has lived in Japan and studied that country’s tea ceremony, had high praise for Every Day a Good Day, a film from Tokyo that uses the tea ceremony as a metaphor for life.

“It’s totally believable,” Ms. Coakley said. “Probably the best line is ‘Master the form first, and the spirit comes later.’ “It was a Zen experience, and absolutely gorgeous.”

The couple also praised Honeyland, a Macedonian documentary in Turkish that opened the festival last week, and Mr. Skjöldebrand singled out the Colombian crime story Birds of Passage for its cinematography. Taken together, they said, the festival’s diverse films revealed a common humanity across the world.

“All of them provoked actual reflection,” Ms. Coakley added.

Max Skjöldebrand and Jane Coakley at the after-party at Waterside Market and La Soffitta. The couple attended nine films. — Jeanna Shepard

Longtime festival-goers Dick and Carol Fligor of Edgartown also gave two thumbs up to Every Day a Good Day, which Mr. Fligor called “a refreshing break” from some of the more serious subjects on the program.

Parasite was “more than I could handle,” said Mr. Fligor, who preferred the movie Non-Fiction, a literary-themed romantic comedy from France that screened at the Capawock Saturday. “It was fabulous. Fabulous,” he said.

Films with diverse viewpoints from around the world are important to see, Mr. Fligor added. “I honor Richard,” for programming them.

“This is what’s going on in the world today,” Mr. Fligor added. “We need to face up and experience some of this.”