Oscars 2020: Joaquin Phoenix wins Best Actor for Joker

Joaquin Phoenix bagged the best actor award and became the second actor after late Heath Ledger, to win an Oscar for playing the Joker.

California: Joaquin Phoenix on Sunday (local time) took home the prize of Best Actor for his portrayal of Arthur Fleck in Joker.

With this, Phoenix has become the second actor, after late Heath Ledger, to win an Oscar for playing the Joker.

This is the second time two actors have won Oscars for playing the same character. In 1972, Marlon Brando won the best actor Oscar for playing Vito Corleone. Two years later, Robert De Niro won the best supporting actor for playing a younger version of the character.

Earlier, Phoenix won the Best Actor award at the Golden Globes 2020, BAFTA Awards 2020 and Screen Actors Guild Awards 2020.

Joker is the fourth DC comic title to cross 1 billion USD mark, after Aquaman (USD 1.15 billion), The Dark Knight Rises (USD 1.084 billion) and The Dark Knight (USD 1.005 billion).

The movie follows Arthur Fleck who finds it hard to make a career as a stand-up comedian and then develops a violent nature towards the wealthy in a decaying Gotham City.

Joaquin Phoenix's Joker lead the nomination list with 11 spots, while Netflix's drama The Irishman and Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood received ten nominations each.

Sam Mendes's war drama 1917 received ten nominations while Noah Baumbach's divorce saga Marriage Story had seven nominations.

South Korean film Parasite gained six nominations--Best Picture, Best Director, Best Foreign Language Film, Best Original Screenplay, Best Production Design and Best Film Editing.

Hollywood's biggest awards are being held without a host for the second year in a row at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.