ASC and CAS nominations: 'Dune' & 'Power of the Dog' make both lists 
Tuesday, January 25, 2022 at 3:54PM
NATHANIEL R in Belfast, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Cinematography, Dune, Power of the Dog, Sound, precursor awards

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

 

 

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


 

 

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

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

CINEMA AUDIO SOCIETY


Motion Picture - Live Action

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Television One Hour

 

 

Television Half Hour

 

 

Television Non-Fiction, Variety, Music Series, Special

 

 

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. 

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