Thursday
Feb022017
24 Days Until Oscar - Your Vote For Best Cinematography?
Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 7:30AM What if the sexiest category this year is actually Best Cinematography? The lineup is so very strong. This year's DPs hail from all over the Globe including the US, Mexico, Australia, and Sweden. And their movies are all astonishingly beautiful albeit in completely different ways
Which of these talented gents are you rooting for to win the Oscar?
P.S. If you haven't yet seen this great montage of every Best Cinematography Winner ever, you should take 7 minutes and do so...
Reader Comments (40)
For me it is a toss-up between Bradford Young or James Laxton. They both did amazing work.
LC: Same. Think I'd go with Young, just for political reasons. The less white graces that stage this year, the better.
What a strong line up. A case can be made for any of them to win but my favourite is Silence in this category.
Laxton, hands down
James Laxton
01. Prieto
02. Laxton
03. Sandgren
04. Young
05. Fraser
I'd be ok with any of the first four winning.
Young based on his physical aesthetics.
I have yet to see Silence, but of the ones I've seen, it's Laxton, with Young in a very close second. Moonlight is the most beautiful film of the year, in large part thanks to his work.
Prieto wins this for me, hands down.
I still haven't seen Silence or Lion. Of the 3 I've seen - Laxton. Easily.
Based on these looks, Laxton.
Based on the movies I've seen, Young.
Sandgren.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon's cinematography is really such a marvel, isn't it? The cinematography branch knows how to select inspired nominees, although seeing The Revenant at the end of that video over Carol or Mad Max is quite the bummer.
I'd give it to Young, but damn Laxton is hot as hell
I haven't seen Silence, but I'd go for Young. Laxton would be deserving, too, though.
Bradford Young is my choice, he did a great job, and after that Prieto
Prieto, easily
Rodrigo Prieto is my winner, but I think all of them are pretty great.
The very best of all lineups this year.
Young or Prieto is my pick. But who are we kidding, this is Sandgren's Oscar to lose. It seems weird though to seek all the cinematographers themselves lined up instead of the movies.
I've only seen 2 of these and as much as I love Arrival, I am not a fan of the murky gray look.
Moonlight and Silence based on their photographic aesthetics deserve to take the Oscar. But La La Land is winning this because the movie itself is a juggernaut.
Young!!!!
A case can be made for Laxton, Sandgrun, and Young. It's a toss up between Young and Laxton for me. Moonlight surprised me with how gorgeous the cinematography actually was. I went in thinking that it was just be this intimate character drama, while it was that, it was also beautiful and absorbing in how it was shot. So for that, my vote would be for James Laxton.
It should be Laxton but it'll probably be Sandgren.
"Silence" and "La La Land" are probably closest to the traditional winner in this category, but I would go for Fraser's palpable work in "Lion" and Laxton's lyrical camerawork in "Moonlight." Due to lingering love for Fraser's work in "Bright Star," my vote goes to him.
Bespectacled and/or bearded, oh my.
LAXTON for the win, but Young, Sandgren and Prieto could shoot my movie any ol' time, yessir.
Head says Silence, heart says Moonlight
Laxton.
I wish Hell or High Water had been nominated.
"La La Land" or "Silence." "American Honey" and "Jackie" should both be here, too.
Don't get "Arrival" at all. Pallid, underlit, blah.
Prieto looks hot in that pic!
My vote is for Fraser
1. Young
2. Prieto
3. Laxton
Also, Thank you for the YouTube video!
I love these Oscar-related compilation videos like these. It really gives you a sense of how contemporary films fit (or don't fit) into the larger narratives and changes in the art form. (And amazing to see how modern some of the older winners still look.)
Of this years nominees: I'm partial to Bradford Young's work for Arrival and James Laxton's Moonlight myself. Arrival's lighting alternated from naturalistic and glum to otherworldly as needed by the narrative, nearly every shot looks like a painting. While Laxton not only lit for practical locations and night scenes in such an evocative way, but is some of the best lighting I've seen for darker skinned actors in a very long time.
But watching the video, my feelings toward La La Land and Linus Sandgren's work warmed. I wouldn't vote for the film with these nominees, but a win here wouldn't be the most egregious form of sweep winning in this category.
(Of non-nominees this year: I thought Vittorio Storaro's Cafe Society was the most gorgeous shot motion picture of 2016. And while I didn't care for the films themselves, I thought Seamus McGarvey's Nocturnal Animals, Natasha Braier's Neon Demon, Adam Arkapaw's The Light Between Oceans and Thimios Bakatakis's The Lobster were beautifully realized and awards worthy in their own unique ways.
I'll literally be happy with any of these guys winning.
I love the compilation video. It makes me want to watch so many of those movies again. And the crazy thing is that I can think of even better shots from a lot of the winning films.
This year, my money's on La La Land, but a Moonlight or Silence win wouldn't surprise me.
Not entirely on topic, but since some commenters are stating they'd like to see Bradford Young win as a "political" statement (he'd be the first black/African-American winner in the categories history), I wanted to point out that Best Cinematography is the only Oscar category (save Actor and Supporting Actor) that has NEVER nominated a woman. NEVER.
In recent years, I'd argue Mandy Walker's work for "Australia" was probably the closest to breaking that glass ceiling back in 2008, when the nominees were Changeling, Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, The Reader and winner Slumdog Millionaire.
Also worthy of consideration are some of Maryse Alberti's narrative film work like "Velvet Goldmine" and "Creed." But I'm hopeful that Rachel Morrison who lens "Fruitvale Station," "Cake" and "Dope" will get a big profile boost for her work in next year's "Black Panther." Marvel films don't tend to get recognized by awards bodies, and are common criticized for their visual look and lack of contrast and true blacks, but its a BIG film for a female cinematographer to be hired to.
Lanxton for " Moonlight"
Major male auteurs have to hire women DPs for things to change.
@Graham Greenlee
Laxton, hands down. I fear the LLL sweep like I did the sweeps of Titanic, The Last Emperor and Gandhi.
And one of the first things to hit me during that Best Cinematography clip was the frequency of the films that beautifully captured the face of Paul Newman, especially the Oscar winning work of James Wong Howe for Hud.
Let's be real, if we were actually going to give out an award for the year's best use of lighting and painting of color on film... it would be to Natasha Braier for The Neon Demon. The movie was ridiculous but every scene had something special going on with its lighting and every moment could be framed or put into some fabulous coffee-table book. Even its end credits were amazingly lit.
But it wasn't even considered because of how insane it was despite its clear strength on the look of the film, similar to Spring Breakers from a couple years ago.
Of these nominees, Moonlight achieves its goals AND lives up to the meaning behind its title.