Joker is moving from strength to strength. After a healthy initial showing on the international movie circuit scene by winning Best Picture at the Venice Film Festival, and subsequently becoming the highest-grossing R-rated movie of all time, Joker has added another feather to its cap by becoming the most nominated film for the UK's 2020 BAFTA awards. This comes amid controversy over the lack of diversity in the nominations announced today, of which you can see a full list below.

With 11 nominations, including Best Actor and Best Picture, it is clear that the BAFTA awards committee has fallen in love with Todd Phillips's somber take on one of the most colorful and bombastic villains in comicdom. And they are not the only ones. Joaquin Phoenix won the 2020 Golden Globe award for best actor, making waves earlier this week.

It can be readily argued that the success of the film rests on Phoenix's shoulders. The temperamental actor has shown reluctance in the past to be associated with the usual trappings of a superhero movie, despite being offered major roles in the MCU. But something about making an origin story for the Clown Prince of Crime attracted Phoenix to the project, and he immersed himself in the role with his trademark enthusiasm for unusual characters.

After losing a shocking amount of weight and studying the habits of real-life patients with mental illnesses, Phoenix transformed into Arthur Fleck, a struggling standup comedian who finds himself adrift in an uncaring society while burdened with undiagnosed mental problems and an ailing mother.

A run-in with a group of rich, violently obnoxious Gotham elites leads to Arthur's first crime and a domino effect that sees the city's disenfranchised rise up against the wealthy, and Arthur's eventual transformation into The Joker.

It is a haunting tale that upends all expectations that critics have of superhero movies, and the no-frills treatment of the story as a character study instead of focusing on explosions and CGI helped Joker gain the positive reviews it needed to make the BAFTAs, along with every other major awards show, take notice.

Interestingly, if Phoenix wins, it will be the second time the character of The Joker gets recognized at the BAFTAs. Heath Ledger memorably won the BAFTA award posthumously for Best Actor in a supporting role for playing the same character in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. A win on Phoenix's part will only raise the prestige associated with The Joker as a character that offers scope for incredible performances by actors brave enough to take on the role.

Apart from Joker, the BAFTAs has announced 10 nominations for The Irishman, 10 for Once upon a time in Hollywood, and 9 for the war epic 1917. The nominations have come under criticism for favoring works by white, male filmmakers at the expense of movies made by women and people of color.

The controversy around Joker is also far from over, with Phoenix's big win at the Golden Globes setting off fresh debates about the killer-as-victim narrative that some say the movie espouses. Only time will tell if Phoenix will be able to match Ledger at the Oscars as well, making the Joker the only comic character performance to win the Academy Award for Best Actor twice. BBC announced the awards earlier today. You can take look at the full list below.

  • BEST FILM

  • 1917
  • The Irishman
  • Joker
  • Once Upon a Time... In Hollywood
  • Parasite
  • OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

  • 1917
  • Bait
  • For Sama
  • Rocketman
  • Sorry We Missed You
  • The Two Popes
  • 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
  • DIRECTOR

  • Sam Mendes - 1917
  • Martin Scorsese - The Irishman
  • Todd Phillips - Joker
  • Quentin Tarantino - Once Upon A Time... In Hollywood
  • Bong Joon-Ho - Parasite
  • EE RISING STAR AWARD

  • Awkwafina
  • Jack Lowden
  • Kaitlyn Dever
  • Kelvin Harrison Jr
  • Micheal Ward
  • OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

  • Bait - Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
  • For Sama - Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
  • Maiden - Alex Holmes
  • Only You - Harry Wootliff
  • Retablo - Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio
  • FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • The Farewell
  • For Sama
  • Pain and Glory
  • Parasite
  • Portrait of a Lady On Fire
  • DOCUMENTARY

  • American Factory
  • Apollo 11
  • Diego Maradona
  • For Sama
  • The Great Hack
  • ANIMATED FILM

  • Frozen 2
  • Klaus
  • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
  • Toy Story 4
  • 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
  • ORIGINAL SCORE

  • 1917 - Thomas Newman
  • Jojo Rabbit - Michael Giacchino
  • Joker - Hildur Guđnadóttir
  • Little Women - Alexandre Desplat
  • Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - John Williams
  • CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • 1917 - Roger Deakins
  • The Irishman - Rodrigo Prieto
  • Joker - Lawrence Sher
  • Le Mans '66 - Phedon Papamichael
  • The Lighthouse - Jarin Blaschke
  • 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
  • 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 - 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
  • MAKE-UP AND 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
  • BEST 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
  • BEST 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
  • BRITISH SHORT FILM

  • Azaar
  • Goldfish
  • Kamali
  • Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
  • The Trap
  • BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

  • Grandad Was A Romantic
  • In Her Boots
  • The Magic Boat
  • OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION

  • TBC