Joker leads BAFTA nominations

Joaquin Phoenix-starrer Joker, one of the most controversial yet admired movies of 2019, is leading the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nominations with 11 nods.

The Irishman and 1960s-set Once Upon a Time in Hollywood also feature prominently on the list.

The nominations are a major Oscar boost for Joker, which was recognised at the 77th edition of the Golden Globes for the Best Actor award for Phoenix and Best Original Score.

The film is nominated in almost all the key categories including the Best Picture, Best Director for Todd Phillips, Actor, Cinematography, Score, Adapted screenplay and Editing.

In the Best Picture category, the film will fight it out with Martin Scorsese's The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino's revisionist tale Once Upon a Time, besides Sam Mendes' Golden Globe winner 1917 and South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho's class satire Parasite, which has also snagged nominations in categories such as Best Director, Original Screenplay and Foreign Film.

Both the directors and the actors nominees list is highly competitive this year, featuring the usual suspects in Mendes, Scorsese, Phillips, Tarantino and Bong.

In the Best Actor category, Phoenix will face a tough fight from Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, pictured above), Adam Driver (Marriage Story), Taron Egerton (Rocketman) and Jonathan Pryce (The Two Popes).

Renee Zellweger, pictured above, who won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress for her work in Judy, will compete with Jesse Buckley (Wild Rose), Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story), Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) and Charlize Theron (Bombshell).

The Best Supporting Actor category is populated by acting heavy-weights like Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, pictured above), Anthony Hopkins (The Two Popes), Al Pacino (The Irishman) and Joe Pesci (The Irishman) with Brad Pitt being the youngest on the list.

Margot Robbie, pictured above, competes with herself in the Best Supporting Actress category with films Bombshell and Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Laura Dern is the front-runner this year for her role of an empathic lawyer in Marriage Story while Johansson also features in the supporting list for her role of a mother in Jojo Rabbit alongside her Black Widow co-star Florence Pugh (Little Women).

Besides Parasite, the original screenplay features titles such as Booksmart, Knives Out, Marriage Story (pictured above) and Once Upon A Time In Hollywood.

The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women and The Two Popes are up for Best Adapted Screenplay category.

In the documentary category, Indian-British filmmaker Asif Kapadia's Diego Maradona (pictured above) will compete with American Factory, Apollo 11, For Sama and The Great Hack.

Disney dominates the animated feature list with Frozen 2 (pictured above) and Toy Story 4. Klaus and A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon also figure.

BAFTA has a special category to honour the best in British cinema where films 1917 (pictured above), Bait, For Sama, Rocketman, Sorry We Missed You and The Two Popes are competing for Outstanding British film.

Bait, For Sama also feature in the Outstanding Debut by a British writer, director or producer category along with Maiden, Only You and Retablo.

Nominees for this year's EE rising star award include Golden Globe-winner Awkwafina, Kaitlyn Dever, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Jack Lowden and Micheal Ward.