Oscar-Winning Joker Composer Hildur Guðnadóttir Urges Women to 'Speak Up' in Speech
Hildur Guðnadóttir won Best Score at the 2020 Academy Awards — and got a standing ovation!
Guðnadóttir, who composed the music for Joker, became the fourth woman in Oscars history to win the Best Score prize, and the first in more than 20 years, according to Deadline. During her acceptance speech, the composer, 37, urged other women to “speak up” and use their voices.
“Wow, this is so touching,” she began. “Thank you to the Academy for welcoming me so warmly — it’s just, I don’t know what to say!”
“My fellow nominees, masters of the craft,” Guðnadóttir continued. “It’s been such an honor to get to know you all; it’s been so special. A film composer is only as creative as the dialogue with the director, Todd Philips. You’re so generous to invite me on this journey and listen to me the whole way so attentively, and I thank you for that. So deeply.”
The composer concluded her speech by saying: “To the girls, to the women, to the mothers, to the daughters who hear the music bubbling within. Please speak up, we need to hear your voices.”
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Joker picked up 11 Oscar nominations ahead of Sunday night’s ceremony, including in the big Best Picture category. Lead actor Joaquin Phoenix also won the Best Actor award shortly after Guðnadóttir’s win.
The movie, directed by Todd Phillips, earned critical acclaim at its debut at the Venice Film Festival in late August 2019 — it won the Golden Lion award at the festival — and was again applauded at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
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In the film, Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck, a man struggling with a variety of mental illnesses that keeps him from finding acceptance in a city that is slowly slipping into chaos itself. Fleck eventually becomes the iconic Batman villain Joker.
The 92nd Annual Academy Awards are airing live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Feb. 9.
