  We study local regularity properties of local minimizer of scalar integral
functionals of the form $$\mathcal F[u]:=\int_\Omega F(\nabla u)-f u\,dx$$
where the convex integrand $F$ satisfies controlled $(p,q)$-growth conditions.
We establish Lipschitz continuity under sharp assumptions on the forcing term
$f$ and improved assumptions on the growth conditions on $F$ with respect to
the existing literature. Along the way, we establish an
$L^\infty$-$L^2$-estimate for solutions of linear uniformly elliptic equations
in divergence form which is optimal with respect to the ellipticity contrast of
the coefficients.
