Joker kept genre from being shut out at the 2020 Academy Awards.
The Best Actor Award went to Joaquin Phoenix. In the process he became the second person to win an Oscar for playing comic book villain The Joker. Heath Ledger was the first, who posthumously won for playing Joker in The Dark Knight.
The composer of Joker’s score, Hildur Gudnadóttir also won an Oscar. In accepting the award she said, “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.”
The full list of winners follows the jump.
Performance by an actor in a leading role
- Joaquin Phoenix in JOKER
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
- Brad Pitt in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
Performance by an actress in a leading role
- Renée Zellweger in JUDY
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
- Laura Dern in MARRIAGE STORY
Best animated feature film of the year
- TOY STORY 4 — Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera
Achievement in cinematography
- 1917 — Roger Deakins
Achievement in costume design
- LITTLE WOMEN — Jacqueline Durran
Achievement in directing
- PARASITE — Bong Joon Ho
Best documentary feature
- AMERICAN FACTORY — Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert and Jeff Reichert
Best documentary short subject
- LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) — Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreicheva
Achievement in film editing
- FORD V FERRARI — Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland
Best international feature film of the year
- PARASITE — South Korea — Directed by Bong Joon Ho
Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
- BOMBSHELL — Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan and Vivian Baker
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
- JOKER — Hildur Guðnadóttir
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
- “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from ROCKETMAN — Music by Elton John; Lyric by Bernie Taupin
Best motion picture of the year
- PARASITE — Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers
Achievement in production design
- ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD — Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Best animated short film
- HAIR LOVE — Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver
Best live action short film
- THE NEIGHBORS’ WINDOW — Marshall Curry
Achievement in sound editing
- FORD V FERRARI — Donald Sylvester
Achievement in sound mixing
- 1917 — Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson
Achievement in visual effects
- 1917 — Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler and Dominic Tuohy
Adapted screenplay
- JOJO RABBIT — Screenplay by Taika Waititi
Original screenplay
- PARASITE — Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won; Story by Bong Joon Ho
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You didn’t think TOY STORY 4 was genre? One marvels (no pun intended) at the world you live in.
JOJO RABBIT is arguably genre as well, at least as much as a film like HARVEY.
Parasite was horror…(IMO)
Since fans assume every animated movie is genre, I don’t consider anything winning that category as a litmus test for whether genre made Oscar news.
Ellen Datlow: While I think your opinion if what’s horror is pretty meaningful, not having seen Parasite myself, when I started doing 2020 awards coverage a few weeks ago I resorted to the Wikipedia which calls it a “black comedy thriller film.” As a result, I left Parasite aside when identifying genre films in posts about Golden Globes and various guild awards.
Granted, my take on what is horror is pretty broad. But I consider it all that plus psychological horror (not to mention its “slasher” aspects).
I don’t think it’s a matter of assuming that every animated film is genre; there are some which deal with a realistic world. But there have been 19 films that won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature since the category was instituted, and I believe that all of those 19 have significant fantasy or science fictional plot elements. (I’ve seen 15 of them myself.)
If a non-SF/fantasy animated film wins the Oscar, then I would be fine with considering it to be non-genre.
Re Ellen Datlow’s categorization of PARASITE as horror: PARASITE is horror pretty much the same way PSYCHO or THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS is–more terror than anything supernatural. Whether one counts that as genre is a personal choice.
Re Joshua K’s comments on animated films: Yes, all 19 winners are fantasy. PERSEPOLIS, a 2007 nominee, and SPIRIT: STALLION OF THE CIMARRON, a 2002 nominee, are the only two non-fantasy animated films to appear among the finalists.
Psycho is a classic “terror tale” -which is one subset of horror.The Silence of the Lambs is considered a horror novel by most readers/publishers of horror. It won the World Fantasy Award because “psychological” horror is another subset of “horror.”
Ellen Datlow: Psycho is a classic “terror tale” – which is one subset of horror. The Silence of the Lambs is considered a horror novel by most readers/publishers of horror. It won the World Fantasy Award because “psychological” horror is another subset of “horror.”
Agreed. Horror is a genre on its own, with subcategories such as slasher, terror, and psychological.
But when Mike says “genre” what he generally means is SFF. On a Venn diagram, Horror and SFF have an intersection, but not all Horror is SFF.
I’m not surprised it won a Stoker, but I’m kind of surprised that The Silence of the Lambs won a WFA, given that it’s a mundane horror novel. And I would consider Parasite non-SFF horror as well.
Just looked it up and it was nominated, didn’t win that year. However Song of Kali won in its year, MIsery was a nominee in its year, and it’s likely other non-supernatural horror novels have been on the ballot. (I don’t have time to do any more research to check).