Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker gets eight-minute standing ovation as critics rave, watch video

Joaquin Phoenix’s upcoming comic book film, Joker, got an eight-minute standing ovation after its Venice International Film Festival premiere over the weekend. Videos of the crowd’s reaction have been shared online.

According to Variety, two press screenings were conducted for the film, the second of which also drew loud applause from the audience at the end, and when Phoenix’s name came up in the credits.

Videos shared online show the crowd standing inside the auditorium, and delivering sustained applause as the house lights come up. After Venice, Joker will also screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, in an effort by Warner Bros to boost the film’s chances in the awards season.

Phoenix, as well as director Todd Phillips, drew praise for the work. The videos also show the actor-director duo acknowledging the applause as they hug each other inside the auditorium. Critical reviews have been mostly positive, with the film currently standing at an 89% score on review aggregator, Rotten Tomatoes. The consensus on the site reads, “Joker gives its infamous central character a chillingly plausible origin story that serves as a brilliant showcase for its star -- and a dark evolution for comics-inspired cinema.”

Phoenix, a three-time Oscar nominee, is the third actor to play the iconic Batman villain in film, after Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger and Jared Leto. Several critics called for another Oscar nod for the star, who said he wasn’t inspired by previous depictions of the character. “I didn’t refer to any past iteration of the character,” Phoenix said at Venice, post the premiere. “It just felt like something that was our creation in some ways.”

Also starring Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy and others, Joker is slated for release on October 4.

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