Joker leads BAFTA nominations with 11 mentions

7 January 2020, 11:26

Joker leads the 2020 BAFTA nominations, with The Irishman and Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood also heading up the list.

Todd Phillips's dark comic book film received 11 nominations, including best film, best actor for Joaquin Phoenix and best director.

Martin Scorsese's The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood are also both up for best film, and are joined by Sam Mendes's 1917 and South Korean black comedy Parasite.

Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood's stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie all recognised in the acting categories, with the film also up for best director.

The Irishman is also nominated for best director, with Al Pacino and Joe Pesci both up for best supporting actor.

Critically acclaimed Netflix divorce drama Marriage Story has been notably left out of the best film nominations, although Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver both received acting nominations.

In the leading actress category, Johansson is up against Jessie Buckley for Wild Rose, Saoirse Ronan for Little Women, Charlize Theron for Bombshell and Golden Globe winner Renee Zellweger for Judy.

Margot Robbie received two best supporting actress nominations, for her roles in Bombshell and Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood.

She will be up against Laura Dern in Marriage Story, Florence Pugh in Little Women and Scarlett Johansson, in Jojo Rabbit.

The supporting actor nominees are Tom Hanks for A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood, Sir Anthony Hopkins for The Two Popes, Al Pacino for The Irishman, Joe Pesci for The Irishman, and Brad Pitt for Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood.

The nominations are already facing criticism, as Bafta bosses have said it is "disappointing" and "infuriating" that this year's film awards feature all-white acting nominees and no female directors.

It had been hoped that Greta Gerwig would land a directing nomination for her adaptation of Little Women, but she is only recognised in the adapted screenplay category.

Addressing the lack of diversity, Bafta chief executive Amanda Berry told the PA news agency: "Being totally honest, we are disappointed and that is not to take anything away from the people who have been nominated."

She added: "We do have 13 directors nominated who are females across other categories, so everybody from Jennifer Lee who directed Frozen 2, and this is what gives me joy and hope actually, six female directors in the shorts category and that is the category where we are really seeing talent at the start of their career and they are the industry of the future, but we are going to do more, we are not going to stop pushing."

Marc Samuelson, chairman of Bafta's film committee, said: "Clearly everybody knows that everybody in the four acting groups of nominees are white, it's infuriating, we can't make the industry do something, all we can do is encourage and push and inspire and try to help people coming in at the bottom end.

"There are some good signs - if you take all the nominations, it's up to about 36% female and it's been rising every year and that is pretty much doubled over the last couple of years so that is a really good sign and that is across all categories, which is very interesting, because obviously a lot of those are craft, which is also very important.

"Keep going on that and maybe in another couple of years we are over 40% and are heading towards parity, which would be great.

"It doesn't take anything away from the issue in the acting categories but nonetheless it's something and things are moving."

He added that the Bafta programme Elevate, which focuses on under-represented groups, will once again focus on female directors to try to address the issue.

The ceremony will be hosted by Graham Norton on Sunday 2 February.