Oscars 2020: Hildur Guðnadóttir becomes first female winner for Best Score in 23 years

Hildur Guðnadóttir, the composer behind Joker made history as she became the first woman to win an Oscar in the Best Original Score category since the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences combined all of the score categories into one in 1997. Hildur was one of only seven women to be nominated in any score composition category and only three have won. She was also given a standing ovation from the audience as she approached the podium to receive her award. 

In her acceptance speech 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”. 

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Hildur was born in Iceland and is currently based in Berlin. She represents a rare case of a composer being brought in before shooting to provide original music. She composed a theme for Joaquin Phoenix's Joker character after reading the script while the actor danced to the sound of her electro-acoustic cello on-set.

While speaking to an international media outlet, she said that she writes her music and tries to picture what the character is going through. Hildur reportedly said that in the case of Joker, Phoenix was a man who was going through an excruciating journey and she tried to imagine what was going on his head. 

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Joaquin Phoenix wins Best Actor for Joker

While Hildur won in Best Original Score category, actor Joaquin Phoenix took the golden statuette home for his stellar performance in Todd Philip's Joker. Joaquin Phoenix portrayed the role of failed comedian Arthur Fleck in Todd Philips' Joker which was an origin story based on the DC Comics antagonistic character.

This is the first time that the actor has won an Academy Award for his performance in films. In his impassioned acceptance speech, Phoenix made a plea for human beings to stop fighting each other and to stop plundering natural resources. 

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(With Agency Inputs)