2020 BAFTA Film Awards: ‘Joker’ is the top nominee

January 7, 2020

by Carla Hay

With 11 nominations, the supervillain origin story “Joker” is the leading contender for the 73rd annual British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, which will be presented at Royal Albert Hall in London on February 2, 2020. Graham Norton will host the show, which will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD in the United Kingdom and in other major territories around the world. BBC America will have the U.S. telecast of the show.

Other films to receive several nominations include “The Irishman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” which garnered 10 nods each. “1917” has nine nods, and “Jojo Rabbit” received six nominations. “Little Women,” “Marriage Story” and “The Two Popes” got five nods each. “For Sama,” “Parasite” and “Rocketman” received four nominations each. Three nominations each went to “Bombshell,” “Judy,” “Le Mans ’66” (which is known as “Ford v Ferrari” in the U.S. and other countries) and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” Eligible movies were those released in the United Kingdom in 2019. (Some movies that have been getting awards buzz, such as “Uncut Gems” and “Just Mercy,” were released in the U.S. in 2019, and will have a U.K. release in 2020.)

The nominees for the EE Rising Star Award were previously announced as Awkwafina, Jack Lowden, Kaitlyn Dever, Kelvin Harrison Jr, and Micheal Ward. According to a BAFTA press release: “The award is voted for by the British public and presented to an actress or actor who has demonstrated exceptional talent and has begun to capture the imagination of the U.K. public. Voting is now open at ee.co.uk/baftas.”

Snubs and Surprises

The most noticeable snubs were for non-white actors in the major acting categories: All of the BAFTA nominees in these categories this year are white: Leading Actor, Leading Actress, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress. That means no acting nominations for anyone in the casts of the critically acclaimed, award-winning films “Parasite,” “Dolemite Is My Name” and “Pain and Glory.” The good news is that there is racial diversity in the actors nominated in the EE Rising Star Award. The nominees in that category include Kelvin Harrison Jr. (“Luce,” “Waves”) and Micheal Ward (“Blue Story”) are black, while Awkwafina (“The Farewell”) is Chinese American. Meanwhile, once again, there were no female directors nominated in the category of Best Director.

A big surprise was Margot Robbie scoring two BAFTA supporting actress nominations this year. Although she was widely expected to get a nod for “Bombshell” in this category, she was not widely expected to get nominated for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” considering that the movie received a lot of criticism for Robbie’s Sharon Tate character not having enough meaningful dialogue and screen time. Another notable surprise is Jessie Buckley’s lead actress nomination for “Wild Rose,” since her performance in the movie has been largely ignored for nominations for major movie awards.

Here is the complete list of nominations for the 2020 BAFTA Awards:

Best Film

“1917”
“The Irishman”
“Joker”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“Parasite”

Outstanding British Film

“1917”
“Bait”
“For Sama”
“Rocketman”
“Sorry We Missed You”
“The Two Popes”

Best Director

Sam Mendes (“1917”)
Martin Scorsese (“The Irishman”)
Todd Phillips (“Joker”)
Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”)

Leading Actress

Jessie Buckley (“Wild Rose”)
Scarlett Johansson (“Marriage Story”)
Saoirse Ronan (“Little Women”)
Charlize Theron (“Bombshell”)
Renée Zellweger (“Judy”)

Leading Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio (“Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”)
Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”)
Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”)
Taron Egerton (“Rocketman”)
Jonathan Pryce (“The Two Popes”)

Supporting Actor

Tom Hanks (“A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood”)
Anthony Hopkins (“The Two Popes”)
Al Pacino (“The Irishman”)
Joe Pesci (“The Irishman”)
Brad Pitt (“Once Upon A Time in Hollywood”)

Supporting Actress

Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”)
Scarlett Johansson (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Florence Pugh (“Little Women”)
Margot Robbie (“Bombshell”)
Margot Robbie (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Adapted Screenplay

Steven Zaillian (“The Irishman”)
Taika Waititi (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Todd Phillips, Scott Silver (“Joker”)
Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”)
Anthony McCarten (“The Two Popes”)

Original Screenplay

Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman (“Booksmart”)
Rian Johnson (“Knives Out”)
Noah Baumbach (“Marriage Story”)
Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho (“Parasite”)

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite (“Bait”)
Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts (“For Sama”)
Alex Holmes (“Maiden”)
Harry Wootliff (“Only You”)
Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (“Retablo”)

Original Score

Thomas Newman (“1917”)
Michael Giacchino (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Hildur Guđnadóttir (“Joker”)
Alexandre Desplat (“Little Women”)
John Williams (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)

Cinematography

Roger Deakins (“1917”)
Rodrigo Prieto (“The Irishman”)
Lawrence Sher (“Joker”)
Phedon Papamichael (“Le Mans ’66”)
Jarin Blaschke (“The Lighthouse”)

EE Rising Star Award (public vote)

Awkwafina
Kaitlyn Dever
Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Jack Lowden
Micheal Ward

Film Not in the English Language

Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia (“The Farewell”)
Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts (“For Sama”)
Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar (“Pain and Glory”)
Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”)
Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”)

Documentary

Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert (“American Factory”)
Todd Douglas Miller (“Apollo 11”)
Asif Kapadia (“Diego Maradona”)
Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts (“For Sama”)
Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim (“The Great Hack”)

Animated Film

Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho (“Frozen 2”)
Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh (“Klaus”)
Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley (“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon”)
Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen (“Toy Story 4”)

Casting

Shayna Markowitz (“Joker”)
Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler (“Marriage Story”)
Victoria Thomas (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)
Sarah Crowe (“The Personal History of David Copperfield”)
Nina Gold (“The Two Popes”)

Editing

Thelma Schoonmaker (“The Irishman”)
Tom Eagles (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Jeff Groth (“Joker”)
Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker (“Le Mans ’66”)
Fred Raskin (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Production Design

Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales (“1917”)
Bob Shaw, Regina Graves (“The Irishman”)
Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran (“Joker”)
Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Costume Design

Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell (“The Irishman”)
Mayes C. Rubeo (“Jojo Rabbit”)
Jany Temime (“Judy”)
Jacqueline Durran (“Little Women”)
Arianne Phillips (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”)

Makeup and Hair

Naomi Donne (“1917”)
Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan (“Bombshell”)
Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann (“Joker”)
Jeremy Woodhead (“Judy”)
Lizzie Yianni Georgiou (“Rocketman”)

Sound

Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson (“1917”)
Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic (“Joker”)
David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester (“Le Mans ’66”)
Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan (“Rocketman”)
David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)

Special Visual Effects

Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy (“1917”)
Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick (“Avengers: Endgame”)
Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman (“The Irishman”)
Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez (“The Lion King”)
Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy (“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”)

British Short Animation

Maryam Mohajer (“Grandad Was a Romantic”)
Kathrin Steinbacher (“In Her Boots”)
Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel (“The Magic Boat”)

British Short Film

Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring (“Azaar”)
Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill (“Goldfish”)
Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad (“Kamali”)
Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva (“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl”)
Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald (“The Trap”)