Harald Krichel · CC BY-SA 4.0

Phillips spent the 2000s directing broad studio comedies — Old School, Starsky & Hutch, the Hangover trilogy — before pivoting hard with Joker in 2019, which he co-wrote and directed. The film won the Golden Lion at Venice and earned him three Academy Award nominations, for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, his second, third and fourth Oscar nods after an earlier nomination for co-writing Borat.