Joker - 11 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year - Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Best Achievement in Directing - Todd Phillips

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role - Joaquin Phoenix

Best Adapted Screenplay - Todd Phillips, Scott Silver

Best Achievement in Cinematography - Lawrence Sher

Best Achievement in Costume Design - Mark Bridges

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling - Nicki Ledermann, Kay Georgiou

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - Hildur Guðnadóttir

Best Achievement in Film Editing - Jeff Groth

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing - Tom Ozanich, Dean A. Zupancic, Tod A. Maitland

Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Alan Robert Murray

Do you see that movie poster at the top of this page?  That is the moment that Joaquin Phoenix won his Oscar.  He has been nominated 4 times and he has been excellent in every film.  He came very close with Walk the Line, but this is the role that is going to take him past the finish line.  One of very few times that two different actors will have won Oscars for the same role (Heath Ledger won in 2008 for playing the Joker in The Dark Knight).  Don't worry my Oscars babies, I've found the articles with the all the trivia of others who have done it, see the bottom of this blog post.)

Joker is a dark film.  Phoenix lost over 50 pounds to play this role, to make the character of Arthur Fleck (A-fleck, isn't he supposed to be Batman? Haha) weak and easy to pick on.  Fleck has a strange disorder in which he laughs at tense moments and he carries around a little card to explain his affliction to strangers when Fleck seems to be behaving inappropriately.  Arthur lives with his mother, is trying to make it as a stand up comedian who is obsessed with a version of The Tonight Show, and he moonlights as a hospital clown.  As his life begins to spiral, Fleck morphs into a man who will not accept the cards he has been dealt and becomes a sociopathic monster.  Joker captures the origin story of the villain, and also, a small glimpse into the origin story of Batman himself.

This is another instance of a film capturing a ton of awards without being taken up by mostly acting nominations.  That means that this film is being lauded primarily for the craft of making it, and there is no question that Joker earned every nomination in the list.  The character of the Joker first appeared in Batman comics on April 25, 1940, so there must be something very compelling to allow this character to appear and reappear in shows, comics, and films over and over again.  We now have three iconic Joker performances - Jack Nicholson (Batman, 1989), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight, 2008), and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, 2019).  Each a powerhouse performance set in a solid film.  I walked away awestruck by this film, and if you have the time, it's worth the watch.

If you loved Joker, my guess is that you'll love Batman: The Definitive History of the Dark Knight in Comics, Film, and Beyond, by Andrew Farago

Here's the trailer:

OSCARS TRIVIA ALERT!

Two different actors for the same role:
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/24122/quick-10-10-pairs-actors-oscar-nominated-same-role
The same actor for the same role in the same movie, but two Oscars:
https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-ca-classic-hollywood-harold-russell-20161130-story.html