Jose here. As if this year wasn’t already complicated enough in terms of finding "the one" frontrunner (don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining!), now the American Society of Cinematographers has gone and made matters worse (in a totally beautiful way) by having their first three-way tie in history which led to a whopping seven nominees for their Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in a Theatrical Release Award. Joining usual suspects 12 Years a Slave, Gravity and Inside Llewyn Davis were much less “obvious” choices including The Grandmaster (which our friend Michael has been championing) and Prisoners (which is kinda obvious...) and before anyone screams "American Hustle was snubbed!", remember that none of Russell's movies have ever been nominated for a cinematography award by either ASC or AMPAS.
The full list of nominees:
• Sean Bobbitt, for 12 Years a Slave
• Barry Ackroyd, for Captain Phillips
• Philippe Le Sourd for The Grandmaster
• Emmanuel Lubezki, for Gravity
• Bruno Delbonnel, for Inside Llewyn Davis
• Phedon Papamichael, for Nebraska
• Roger Deakins, for Prisoners
So far, Gravity and Inside Llewyn Davis have been racking up the critics awards in this category, so it’s interesting to see what an actual guild has to say. We could say that five of these will be our Oscar nominees, especially since the ASC and Oscar rarely agree in their nominees or awards (in 27 years only 10 ASC winners have gone on to win the Oscar).
TRIVIA and more after the jump!
With this, his 12th nomination, Roger Deakins is the most nominated cinematographer in the ASC’s history. He won his third last year for Skyfall but after 10 Oscar nominations has still to win one of theirs.
Emmanuel Lubezki has been nominated four times for this award and has won twice already. Unlike AMPAS which has been favoring CGI cinematography for the past four years in a row (as Nathaniel rightfully has pointed out) the ASC award in three of those corresponding years has gone to a more traditionally shot film, which might mean Lubezki isn’t the favorite to win here.
This could mean that if Deakins is nominated for Prisoners (and history says he will, since Oscar's only snubbed him once for a corresponding ASC nod for Revolutionary Road), we would have a showdown between the two arguably greatest living DPs. The edge is on Lubezki though, because well, Best Picture nominees usually take this award.
In 2004 and 2009 the ASC Award went to A Very Long Engagement and The White Ribbon respectively, which - one would think - might bode well for Philippe Le Sourd and The Grandmaster...but during the last fifteen years Oscar also gave its its Cinematography award to foreign movies twice: to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Pan’s Labyrinth, which wasn’t nominated by the ASC.
This is the first time Bruno Delbonnel has been nominated by the ASC for his work in an English speaking film. AMPAS recognized his work in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The ASC winner will be announced February, 1, 2014.
Winners will be announced February 1st.