ASC and CAS nominations: 'Dune' & 'Power of the Dog' make both lists

by Nathaniel R

The American Society of Cinematographers and the Cinema Audio Society have released their nominations for outstanding work in film and television last year. As with the Art Directors yesterday, there are surprise omissions of notable contenders. West Side Story, for example, is not nominated for cinematography while another musical tick, tick...BOOM! misses with the sound guild. It's all leading up to an Oscar nomination morning that could be volatile.  The full list of nominations with notes after the jump...

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS

Feature Film

• Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC for “The Tragedy of Macbeth”
• Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS for “Dune”
• Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF for “Nightmare Alley"
• Ari Wegner, ACS for “The Power of the Dog”
• Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC for “Belfast”

This field transfers intact to Oscar nominations roughly 50% of the time. Occassionally one film will drop out though.. the question being... "which is most vulnerable?" When Oscar voters do switch out an ASC nominee lately they've done so for something less mainstream: First Man fell to Germany's Never Look Away (2018), Ford V Ferrari fell to A24 oddity The Lighthouse (2019), though last season that didn't really apply when Cherry (2020) fell to Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

We don't really understand the inclusion of Belfast when there are superior-looking black and white films available to suit that very specific fetish of the cinematographic community (C'mon C'mon and especially Passing!!!) but it is what it is. It is quite a surprise to see West Side Story miss though it's worth noting that the ASC is slightly less enamored with Janusz Kaminski than Oscar voters are; he's received 6 nominations from both organization but he's won two Oscars and has never won from his own guild.

Spotlight

• Ruben Impens, SBC for “Titane”
• Pat Scola for “Pig”
• Adolpho Veloso, ABC for “Jockey”

This has quickly become our favourite Guild award. It's such a smart addition and all guilds should do it. The category is meant to focus on breakouts and underheralded talents in off the beaten path films. This is our first suggestion that the industry is watching Jockey which has had a very very low profile despite early since its early long forgotten Best Actor buzz. Only two "Spotlight" nominees ever transferred to Oscar nominations though and both were in black and white (Ida and The Lighthouse). Still, wouldn't it be surreal and exciting if, say, Titane did it? Impens is a very gifted DP. He previously shot the Belgian Oscar nominee Broken Circle Breakdown (2013) which is great-looking and he has recently begun working in English language cinema (Beautiful Boy, Mustang, Dirty God, Black Mirror) so perhaps an Oscar nomination is only a matter of time? 

Documentary

• Jessica Beshir for “Faya Dayi”
• Isabel Bethencourt and Parker Hill for “Cusp”
• Daniel Schönauer for “The Hidden Life of Trees”

They were certainly into black and white this year with nominations for Faya Dayi, Tragedy of Macbeth, and Belfast

Motion Picture, Limited Series, or Pilot Made for Television

• Steve Annis for “Foundation” – Pilot Episode: The Emperor’s Peace
• Tim Ives, ASC for “Halston” – Episode: The Party’s Over
• James Laxton, ASC for “The Underground Railroad” – Episode: Chapter 9: Indiana Winter
• Christophe Nuyens, SBC for Lupin” – Pilot Episode: Chapter 1
• Ben Richardson, ASC for “Mare of Easttown”– Episode: Illusions

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

• Stuart Biddlecombe for “The Handmaid’s Tale”– Episode: The Wilderness
• David Garbett for “Sweet Tooth” – Episode: Big Man
• David Greene, ASC, CSC for “Chaplewaite” – Episode: The Promised
• Jon Joffin, ASC for “Titans” – Episode: Souls
• Boris Mojsovski, ASC, CSC for “Titans” – Episode: Home
• Kate Reid, BSC for “The Nevers” – Episode: Hanged

It's quite surprising to see an honor for "Titans", the only show hate-watched by yours truly. Normally if I don't like a show i just dont watch, period. But for whatever reason, I can't stop watching this one even though it's legitimately terrible. I blame my childhood (I was obsessed with the Teen Titans).

Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial

• Thomas Burstyn, CSC, NZSC for “Snowpiercer” – Episode: Our Answer for Everything
• Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC for “Snowfall” – Episode: Weight
• Ronald Paul Richard for “Riverdale” – Episode: Chapter Eighty-Nine: Reservoir Dogs
• Brendan Steacy, CSC for “Clarice” – Episode: Silence is Purgatory
• David Stockton, ASC for “MAYANS M.C.” – Episode: The Orneriness of Kings
• Gavin Struthers, ASC, BSC for “Superman & Lois” – Episode: Heritage

Here's a question for any industry types who may be reading. Why do guilds sometimes distinguish between commerical television and cable television for craft awards? It's not as if the work itself has different requirements (except perhaps for Editing since rhythm and flow it so important there.)

Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series

• Marshall Adams, ASC for “Servant” – Episode: 2:00
• Michael Berlucchi for “Mythic Quest” – Episode: Backstory!
• Adam Bricker for “Hacks” – Episode: There is No Line
• Paula Huidobro for “Physical” – Episode: Let’s Get Together
• Jaime Reynoso, AMC for “The Kominsky Method” – Episode: And it’s Getting More and More Absurd

Mythic Quest !!! So underrated so we're happy to see it pop up anywhere.

CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY

Motion Picture - Live Action

• Dune
• No Time To Die
• Power of the Dog
• Spider-Man No Way Home
• West Side Story

This nomination for Power of the Dog can only be read as major for that movie's Oscar promise. Dramas score Sound nominations with Oscar only when they're most definitely in the Best Picture race but otherwise sound engineers tend to love themselves some war films, action franchises, musicals, and the like. As with all guilds, it's Most = Best. The lack of nomination here for tick tick BOOM! is not good news for that musical since its presumed to be 'on the bubble' in terms of Best Picture viability. Other films that are on the Oscar Sound finalist list but NOT nominated here are Matrix Resurrections, A Quiet Place Part 2, Last Night in Soho, and Belfast. So though we don't normally predict full 5/5 transfers from guild to Oscar (that's the lazy pundits way to go since more often than not there is not an exact transfer) we were already predicting the five above so that's what we're sticking with!

Motion Picture - Animated

• Encanto
• Luca
• Mitchells vs the Machines
• Raya and the Last Dragon
• Sing 2

The precursors to the Oscars have leaned very heavily towards mainstream American CGI pictures. That's not new but Oscar usually gets a little more creative. We still think they'll spring for Flee. However,  though no one wants to hear this it is *possible* that it misses in all three of the specialty categories (Documentary, International Feature, Animated Feature) since each branch could well think of it as 'belonging to those other branches!

Motion Picture - Documentary

• Becoming Cousteau
• Summer of Soul
• Tina
• Val
• Velvet Underground

They leaned into music docs this year which makes sense. Of these Summer of Soul and Velvet Undergrounda re still in the mix for Best Documentary with Oscar.

Non Theatrical Motion Picture or Limited Series

• Hawkeye Episode 3 "Echoes"
• Mare of Easttown Episode 6 "Sore Must Be the Storm"
• Underground Railroad Chapter 10 "Mabel"
• WandaVision Episode 8 "Previously On
• WandaVision Episode 9 "Series Finale"

Television One Hour

• The Morning Show S2 Episode 1 "My Least Favourite Year"
• Squid Game S1 Episode 7 "VIPs"
• Succession S3 Episode 1 "Secession"
• The White Lotus S1 Episode 5 "The Lotus Eaters"
• Yellowstone S4 Episode 1 "Half the Money"

Television Half Hour

• The Book of Boba Fett S1 Episode 1 Chapter 1 "Stranger in a Strange Land"
• Cobra Kai S3 Episode 10 "December 19th"
• Only Murders in the Building S1 Episode 3 "How Well Do You Know Your Neighbors?"
• Ted Lasso  S2 Episode 5 "Rainbow"
• What We Do in the Shadows S3 Episode 4 "The Casino"

Television Non-Fiction, Variety, Music Series, Special

• The Beatles Get Back: Part 3
• Billie Eilish: The Worlds a Little Blurry
• Bo Burnham Inside
• Formula 1 Drive to Survive S3 Episode 9 "Man on Fire"
• McCartney 3,2,1 Episode 1

Here we get into the weeds of how blurry the lines still are  between the Emmys and the Oscars when it comes to documentaries. The Billie Eilish doc has been submitted for the Oscars where it's a finalist but it's still showing up in television awards and nominated alongside Bo Burnham Inside which was an Emmy nominee. 

Comments

[Paranoid Android]

Looks like our all-B&W lineup of "C'mon C'mon," "Belfast," "Passing," "Tragedy of Macbeth," and "French Dispatch" is on the rocks!

[Edwin]

Nightmare Alley showing up here along with Cate Blanchett’s SAG nomination have me thinking it might not be out of the running for a Best Picture nomination after all (plus Scorsese’s endorsement might help). I could even see a scenario where it overperforms to the tune of 5 or 6 nominations.

[Lenard W]

Edwin- I am in agreement with you on Nightmare Alley. Searchlight has rarely missed in the past 11 years. Plus, Del Toro is making a lot of appearances at virtual screenings and such.

[Score and Cinematography]

Nightmare Alley is possible.

I think The Lost Daughter might make Best Picture as well. Similar to Winter’s Bone, The Kids Are All Right and An Education which got in with a field of 10 and best actress and screenplay nominations. TLD also has Gyllenhaal, Colman and Netflix. Why can’t they have three best pic nominees?

[Peggy Sue]

Did not see the Kaminsky snub coming. Unlike Film Twitter, I don't blame Belfast but Alley. Belfast is going to pop up almost everywhere. Is that type of movie. Let's concentrate our energies in pushing for Titane or something that exciting.

I don't understand the trajectory of Passing. Negga is great but she's not the only thing that is great in that movie!

[Steve G]

I feel like DUNE, WEST SIDE STORY, BELFAST and THE POWER OF THE DOG are going to dominate the craft nominations, giving them 8-12 total nominations each.

I love all those films but I do prefer it when there's more variety in the craft nominations so we can get some surprises.

[Glenn Dunks]

I really, REALLY want somebody who's nominating BELFAST for cinematography to explain what it is exactly they think it's doing that is so special. I don't care for the movie, true, but YIKES. When PASSING (not to mention many other films made in colour) are right there. I honestly suspect it can't be much more than 'i liked the black and white'.

[Edwin]

Glenn Dunks — Usually I would just chalk it up to, as you said, a simple “I liked the black and white,” but since this is an actual cinematographers guild made up of people you’d think would have a more nuanced appreciation of the art than that, I really don’t know. And that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the cinematography in Belfast, just that there’s nothing about it that’s really remarkable or puts it in the conversation for best of the year. Unless it really is as simple as “I liked the movie a lot, and I liked that it was in black and white.” I do worry that some of the guilds take it upon themselves to turn their own awards into yet another Best Picture predictor rather than focusing on just their own field like they’re supposed to, but I guess complaining about that is beating a dead horse by now.

[jules]

The Kaminski snub is infuriating.

I thought the glossy look of Nightmare Alley was all wrong for the film - I'm not a fan of black and white, but if any film this year would have been improved with black and white cinematography, that would have been it.

[TomG]

I'm ok with West Side Story not getting in for cinematography. We often talk about how most doesn't equal the best in costume and production design, but West Side Story had so many lighting cues it became distracting. It was like regional theatre trying to show off.