Academy Awards 2020: Joker leads Oscar nominations with 11

The supervillain origin story of Arthur Fleck's descent into madness and emergence as the titular Joker took home the most Academy Award nominations Jan. 13 with 11, including Best Picture.

Trailing closely behind Joker were a trio of films that each netted 10 nominations: Martin Scorsese's epic gangster film The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino's ode to Los Angeles Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood, and Sam Mendes' World War I tale 1917.

Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of Arthur Fleck as a clown for hire who transforms into the genesis of what would become Batman's arch-nemesis garnered the actor a Best Actor nomination for his performance, while director Todd Phillips received a nod for helming the film.

Joker also received nominations in Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Writing (Adapted Screenplay).

Phoenix becomes just the second actor to receive a nomination from the academy for playing a comic book character.
The first was Heath Ledger who posthumously won Best Supporting Actor in 2009 for his portrayal of the Joker in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, which is a separate telling of the Batman mythos.

The nominations show the ascendence of comic book films in the regal eyes of the academy, which has traditionally been recalcitrant towards honoring that type of cinema. Last year, Marvel's Black Panther became the first comic book film to receive a Best Picture nod.

But in this year's awards, Netflix continued to prove its place in the upper echelons of the film industry, leading all studios with 24 nominations for its films, including The Irishman, Marriage Story, The Two Popes,

Disney trailed closely behind with 23 nominations.