'Joker' leads BAFTA nominations, film chair slams 'infuriating' lack of diversity
Todd Phillips’ Joker has received yet another pre-Oscars boost with a staggering 11 BAFTA nominations, but the lack of diversity among the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ group of nominees is no laughing matter.
The Joaquin Phoenix-starring antihero movie earned notices in the Best Film category among a slew of technical nods, as did Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (10 total nods), Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman (10 nominations), Sam Mendes’ 1917 (nine overall nominations), and Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite (four nods).
Still, as the 2020 BAFTA Award nominations — voted on by a prestigious industry group that shares heavy crossover membership with the Academy — were announced early Tuesday morning, social media buzzed with criticism aimed at the all-white acting nominees (which ultimately inspired the #BAFTASSoWhite hashtag). As it stands, all 20 of the BAFTAs nominees in the four main acting categories are white, with strong pre-season contenders like Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers), Lupita Nyong’o (Us), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet), and Awkwafina (The Farewell) missing out on nominations, while actresses like Scarlett Johansson (Jojo Rabbit, Marriage Story) and Margot Robbie (Bombshell, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) doubled up on BAFTA nods this year.
According to Variety, Marc Samuelson, the chair of BAFTA’s film committee, noted an “infuriating lack of diversity in the acting noms,” while also expressing “frustration that the industry is not moving as fast as certainly the whole BAFTA team would like it to be.”
British publication The Guardian quoted BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry calling the nominations “hugely disappointing,” as she pointed out the group’s “year round activity has many strands that focus on diversity.”
“It’s clear there is much more to be done and we plan to double down on our efforts to affect real change and to continue to support,” she continued, “and encourage the industry on the urgency of doing so much more.”
Outside of the major acting categories, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell was nominated in the Foreign Film category, while actors Awkwafina (The Farewell), Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Luce and Waves), and Micheal Ward (Top Boy) received nominations among the EE Rising Star set.
Representatives for the BAFTA Awards — which will be handed out on Feb. 2 — did not immediately return EW’s request for comment on Tuesday’s nods. Read on for a full list of the 2020 BAFTA nominees, and check out EW’s updated list of Oscar predictions here.
BEST FILM
1917 Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren
THE IRISHMAN Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
JOKER Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino
PARASITE Bong Joon-ho, Kwak Sin-ae
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
1917 Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
BAIT Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
ROCKETMAN Dexter Fletcher, Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Lee Hall
SORRY WE MISSED YOU Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty
THE TWO POPES Fernando Meirelles, Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin, Tracey Seaward, Anthony McCarten
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
BAIT Mark Jenkin (Writer/Director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Producers)
FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab (Director/Producer), Edward Watts (Director)
MAIDEN Alex Holmes (Director)
ONLY YOU Harry Wootliff (Writer/Director)
RETABLO álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Writer/Director)1
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE FAREWELL Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia
FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
PAIN AND GLORY Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
PARASITE Bong Joon-ho
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur
DOCUMENTARY
AMERICAN FACTORY Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert
APOLLO 11 Todd Douglas Miller
DIEGO MARADONA Asif Kapadia
FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
THE GREAT HACK Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim
ANIMATED FILM
FROZEN 2 Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho
KLAUS Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh
A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley
TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen
DIRECTOR
1917 Sam Mendes
THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese
JOKER Todd Phillips
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino
PARASITE Bong Joon-ho
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BOOKSMART Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
KNIVES OUT Rian Johnson
MARRIAGE STORY Noah Baumbach
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino
PARASITE Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE IRISHMAN Steven Zaillian
JOJO RABBIT Taika Waititi
JOKER Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
LITTLE WOMEN Greta Gerwig
THE TWO POPES Anthony McCarten
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
ADAM DRIVER Marriage Story
TARON EGERTON Rocketman
JOAQUIN PHOENIX Joker
JONATHAN PRYCE The Two Popes
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
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
ORIGINAL SCORE
1917 Thomas Newman
JOJO RABBIT Michael Giacchino
JOKER Hildur Gu?nadóttir
LITTLE WOMEN Alexandre Desplat
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER John Williams
CASTING
JOKER Shayna Markowitz
MARRIAGE STORY Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Victoria Thomas
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD Sarah Crowe
THE TWO POPES Nina Gold
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1917 Roger Deakins
THE IRISHMAN Rodrigo Prieto
JOKER Lawrence Sher
LE MANS ’66 Phedon Papamichael
THE LIGHTHOUSE Jarin Blaschke
EDITING
THE IRISHMAN Thelma Schoonmaker
JOJO RABBIT Tom Eagles
JOKER Jeff Groth
LE MANS ’66 Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Fred Raskin
PRODUCTION DESIGN
1917 Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales
THE IRISHMAN Bob Shaw, Regina Graves
JOJO RABBIT Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková
JOKER Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh
COSTUME DESIGN
THE IRISHMAN Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell
JOJO RABBIT Mayes C. Rubeo
JUDY Jany Temime
LITTLE WOMEN Jacqueline Durran
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Arianne Phillips
MAKE UP & HAIR
1917 Naomi Donne
BOMBSHELL Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan
JOKER Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann
JUDY Jeremy Woodhead
ROCKETMAN Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
SOUND
1917 Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson
JOKER Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
LE MANS ’66 David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester
ROCKETMAN Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
1917 Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
AVENGERS: ENDGAME Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick
THE IRISHMAN Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
THE LION KING Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC. Maryam Mohajer
IN HER BOOTS Kathrin Steinbacher
THE MAGIC BOAT Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel
BRITISH SHORT FILM
AZAAR Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring
GOLDFISH Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill
KAMALI Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad
LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva
THE TRAP Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald
EE RISING STAR AWARD
AWKWAFINA
KAITLYN DEVER
KELVIN HARRISON JR.
JACK LOWDEN
MICHEAL WARD
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