A chaotic awards season continues with the ASC nominations. "Cherry" anyone?
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 10:10PM
NATHANIEL R in Best Cinematography, Oscars (20), precursor awards

by Nathaniel R

Cherry (2021) surprises with an ASC nomination.

This awards season continues to deliver one surprise after another. But almost all of those surprises have involved recency bias in one way or another. That's an odd problem to encounter this year, if you stop to think on it. Everyone has been locked up at home for an entire year, presumably watching their many screens that whole time with little else to do for entertainment. You'd think this past film year of all film years, guild and Oscar voters would have been watching more movies and not waiting around for their screeners like they usually do. Shouldn't we have had less recency bias problems this year rather than more? 

Here are the nominees from the American Society of Cinematographers and some notes on the Oscar race as well...

Feature Film


Cherry, a very recent release that was not critically well-received, is of course the total shocker here. Newton Thomas Sigel also shot Da 5 Bloods this year. He's never been nominated for an Oscar though he has done some worthy work in the past (especially with Drive and Three Kings).

No nomination here is a real bummer for Minari, Tenet, First Cow, Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah, and more. But all is not lost. ASC and Oscar line up exactly only about 30% of the time (recently at least) though it's almost always 4/5...

In the Aughts though, 3/5 splits of opinion happened twice. In 2006 ASC went for Apocalypto and The Good Shepherd but Oscar replaced them with Pan's Labyrinth and The Prestige (yes, Oscar definitely traded up that year!). Before that there was another 3/5 split in 2004 when Oscar voters rejected ASC choices Collateral and Ray and replaced them with House of Flying Daggers and Phantom of the Opera

So who is vulnrable this year and might we finally have a 3/5 split again? Cherry might be vulnerable since the  reception has been ice cold but maybe Chicago 7, too? Last year the ASC nominated Phedon Papamichael (here again for Chicago 7) for the car racing drama Ford V Ferrari but Oscar passed him over for something from the ASC's own "Spotlight" category. More on that in a minute.

Here is the past decade with the differing films in bold and the winners marked by stars.

   
2019 ASC 2019 OSCAR
1917 
Ford V Ferrari
Irishman
Joker
Once Upon a Time
1917
Irishman
Joker
The Lighthouse
Once Upon a Time
   
2018 ASC 2018 OSCAR
Cold War
The Favourite
First Man
Roma
A Star is Born
Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
Roma ★
A Star is Born
   
2017 ASC 2017 OSCAR
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water
   
2016 ASC 2016 OSCAR
Arrival
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Silence
Arrival
La La Land
Lion
Moonlight
Silence
   
2015 ASC 2015 OSCAR
Bridge of Spies
Carol
Mad Max Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
Carol
Hateful Eight
Mad Max Fury Road
The Revenant
Sicario
   
2014 ASC 2014 OSCAR
Birdman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Imitation Game
Mr Turner
Unbroken
Birdman
Grand Budapest Hotel
Ida
Mr Turner
Unbroken
   
2013 ASC 2013 OSCAR
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips

The Grandmaster
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Prisoners
The Grandmaster
Gravity 
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
Prisoners
   
2012 ASC 2012 OSCAR
Anna Karenina
Les Miserables
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
Anna Karenina
Django Unchained
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Skyfall
   
2011 ASC 2011 OSCAR
The Artist
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree of Life
The Artist
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
The Tree of Life
War Horse
   
2010 ASC 2010 OSCAR
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

 

 

Spotlight

I was thrilled to see Swallow here which made my own semifinals for Best Cinematography and was also in my top twenty list for Best of 2020

The "Spotlight" category has been pretty amazing since the ASC began it in 2013 Though how the same guild that cherishes emerging artists in challenging cinema, often foreign and indie, is the same that loves the solid but unspectacular visuals of movies like Trial of the Chicago 7  is a complete mystery! That said, it must be a specialized committee within ASC that votes on this prize since they've gone with movies much more obscure than the three they selected this year, two of which are finalists for the Best International Film Oscar nominations. When the ASC differs from Oscar's cinematography branch in their main category, it's usually in deference to mainstream box office hits (examples include but are not limited to: Les Miserables, Pearl Harbor, The Sixth Sense, Ford v Ferrari, Apocalypto, Ray, Crimson Tide, The Perfect Storm, and King Kong

Only two movies nominated for "Spotlight"  have gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography since its creation and both were in black and white: Poland's Ida (2013) and the horror-tinged period drama The Lighthouse (2019).

Documentary

Yay Gunda!  Gunda is the first doc I've ever nominated in my own Best Cinematography award. No documentary (to our knowledge) has been nominated at the Oscars for Best Cinematography since the 1950s... but maybe this'll be the year. Oscar does love black and white movies.

Motion Picture, Limited Series, or Pilot Made for Television

This is the second recent nomination we've seen for Watchmen (can't remember which other guild) and it remains mystifying. Watchmen began and ended in 2019 (October 20th-December 15th) so how is it still eligible for awards honoring the work of 2020 when it already received so many awards last season honoring the year when it actually ran (2019). The episode it's being cited for here aired just before thanksgiving in 2019.

It did not have a second season so what are we missing about its awards this year? Anyone?

Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial

Motherland: Fort Salem "Up is Down"

Episode of a One-Hour Television Series - Non-Commercial 

Lucifer special b&w episode. ASC never passes up a chance to honor black and white work.

Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series

Oh wait, now we're honoring 2019 and 2020 television simultaneously with two different episodes of the Mandalorian that aired more than a year about in two completely different seasons of the show. What is happening with ASC's calendar?!? I double checked and they did in fact have television categories last year honoring 2019 television. Though the latest episode i could see honored was in the summer of 2019 so perhaps they were on a different  summer to summer calendar and have now switched to a new calendar year calendar with extra months thrown in? 

ARE WE GOING CRAZY OR IS THERE A LOGICAL EXPLANATION? 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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