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Warner Bros
Joker has landed Joaquin Phoenix his fourth Oscar nomination
The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards have been announced, with Joker leading the pack with 11 nods.
The comic book villain origin story is up for best picture, best director and best actor for Joaquin Phoenix, plus eight other awards.
The Irishman, 1917 and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood follow with 10 nominations each.
Britain’s Cynthia Erivo, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Pryce and Florence Pugh are all up for acting prizes.
Pugh, up for best supporting actress for Little Women, put her first Oscar nomination down to “hard work” and persistence.
“You’ve got to keep on going and hopefully you’ll see something at the end of the tunnel,” the 24-year-old told BBC News.
Joker’s 11 nominations equals its tally at the British Academy Film Awards, whose nominations were announced last week.
At the Oscars, though, at least one acting contender – Harriet star Erivo – will be from a BAME background.
Yet the awards are sure to receive some censure for announcing another all-male line-up in its best director category.
Greta Gerwig, nominated for best director in 2018 for Lady Bird, did not make the cut again with Little Women.
Pugh called her omission both “sad” and “hard to navigate”. “She is in this film in the writing and the directing [and] in every single performance,” she continued.
Only five women have ever been nominated for the best director Oscar and only one – The Hurt Locker’s Kathryn Bigelow – has ever won.
| Oscar nominations 2020 – leading films | |
|---|---|
| Film | Nominations |
| Joker | 11 |
| Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood | 10 |
| The Irishman | 10 |
| 1917 | 10 |
| Marriage Story | 6 |
| Parasite | 6 |
| Little Women | 6 |
| Jojo Rabbit | 6 |
| Ford v Ferrari | 4 |
Like Joker, The Irishman, 1917 and Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood are all up for the best picture prize.
The other nominees are Ford vs Ferrari (aka Le Mans 66), Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Marriage Story and South Korean film Parasite.
Phoenix is joined in the best actor category by Marriage Story’s Adam Driver, Once Upon a Time’s Leonardo DiCaprio, Pain and Glory’s Antonio Banderas and The Two Popes’ Pryce.
Erivo’s best actress rivals include Little Women’s Saoirse Ronan, Bombshell star Charlize Theron and Renee Zellweger for Judy.
Scarlett Johansson is nominated for Marriage Story and gets another nod in the supporting actress category for Jojo Rabbit.
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Netflix/Fox
Johansson plays a mother in both Marriage Story (left) and Jojo Rabbit
Johansson’s Marriage Story co-star Laura Dern is also in the running for that award, as is Bombshell’s Margot Robbie.
Pugh and Kathy Bates – up for her fourth Oscar for Clint Eastwood film Richard Jewell – complete the line-up in this category.
Brad Pitt is up for best supporting actor for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, as is The Irishman’s Al Pacino and Joe Pesci.
Hopkins and Tom Hanks – up for The Two Popes and A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood respectively – are the other supporting actor nominees.
Britain’s Sam Mendes joins The Irishman’s Martin Scorsese, Joker’s Todd Phillips, Parasite’s Bong Joon-ho and Tarantino in the best director category.
The recently knighted Sir Sam said he “couldn’t be more thrilled” by the nominations for his World War One epic, which he called “a labour of love for many people”.
Parasite and Pedro Almodovar’s Pain & Glory are also up for the international feature film award – previously known as best foreign film.
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Sony
Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio are both shortlisted for Tarantino’s film
Netflix – the subscription giant behind Marriage Story, The Irishman and The Two Popes – has received more than 20 nominations.
These include two nods in the best animated film category, where its films I Lost My Body and Klaus are up against Missing Link, Toy Story 4 and the third How to Train Your Dragon film.
That means there is no room for Frozen 2, whose only nomination comes in the best song category for Into the Unknown.
Elton John biopic Rocketman also gets its only nomination in this category, alongside tracks from Toy Story 4, Harriet and Breakthrough.
That film’s song, I’m Standing With You, marks the 11th time songwriter Diane Warren has been up for an Oscar – an award she has yet to win.
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Universal
Harriet, a biopic of anti-slavery campaigner Harriet Tubman, is up for two Oscars
Other previous nominees in contention again include John Williams, who earns his 52nd nomination for his score for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
The 87-year-old composer already holds the record for the most Oscar nominations ever received by a living individual.
The 92nd Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on 9 February.
This year’s ceremony, like last year’s, will not have an overall host, with a variety of celebrity guests instead introducing each category.
Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody won the most awards last year, picking up four prizes including best actor.
Green Book was named best picture, while Britain’s Olivia Colman won best actress for The Favourite.
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