'Joker' leads BAFTA nominations, film chair slams 'infuriating' lack of diversity

Joey Nolfi

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 Guđnadóttir

  • 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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