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Joker puts a grin on Oscars 2020 with 11 nominations, including Best Picture
Who's laughing now? The contenders for the 2020 Oscars were announced this morning and Todd Phillips' Joker led the pack with 11 nominations (count em!), including ones for Best Picture and Best Director.
The grounded DC origin flick is only the second comic book movie in history to be included in the top category. Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, which broke major superhero barriers at last year's ceremony, was also nominated for Best Picture but did not win, and many noted the Academy's snub of Coogler in the Best Director race. With Joker's field-leading nominations, Phillips has become the first director to ever be nominated for a film based on comic books.
Joker also laughed its way to noms for Best Actor (Joaquin Phoenix), Best Adapted Screenplay (Phillips and Scott Silver), Best Make-Up and Hairstyling (Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou), Best Cinematography (Lawrence Sher), Best Editing (Jeff Groth), Best Original Score (Hildur Guðnadóttir), Best Sound Mixing (Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, and Tod Maitland), Best Sound Editing (JAlan Robert Murray), and Best Costume Design (Mark Bridges).
The movie which is the highest-grossing R-rated release of all time, picked up awards-season steam over the last week with big victories at the Golden Globes and Critics' Choice Awards.
Taika Waititi nabbed his first-ever Oscar nominations for Jojo Rabbit, which is up for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. The fantastical anti-hate satire, which chronicles a young Nazi's disillusionment with the Third Reich during the waning days of World War II, was also recognized for Best Supporting Actress (Scarlett Johansson), Best Costume Design (Mayes C. Rubeo), Bes Production Design (Ra Vincent), and Best Editing (Tom Eagles).
While Marvel Studios had high hopes for Avengers: Endgame (including a push for Robert Downey Jr. for Best Actor), the conclusion to the epic Infinity Saga only received one nod, for its visual effects (Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Matt Aitken, and Dan Sudick).
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker closes out Lucasfilm's 42-year-old Skywalker Saga with three craft nominations for Best Original Score (John Williams), Best Sound Editing (Matthew Wood and David Acord), and Best Visual Effects (Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy).
Aside from the MCU and that galaxy far, far away, Disney bagged nods for The Lion King (Visual Effects), Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Make-up and Hairstyling), Toy Story 4 (Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song - "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away"), and Frozen II (Best Original Song - "Into the Unknown").
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Missing Link, I Lost My Body, and Klaus rounded out the list of feature-length animation nominees.
Knives Out (Best Original Screenplay), The Lighthouse (Best Cinematography), and Ad Astra (Best Sound Mixing) were other genre projects to secure recognition from the Academy.
The 92nd Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 9. For the full list of this year's nominees, click here.
