93rd Academy Awards: "Cinematography as ________ "

Please welcome new contributor Timothy Lyons...

The cinematographers’ branch (like all branches in the Academy) loves a familiar face - think your Lubezkis, your Richardsons and your Deakinses. One of the happy byproducts of an unusual cinematic year mostly void of big anticipated productions and usual suspects, is the higher-than-normal number of newbies recognised across the craft categories for this year’s Oscars. The five nominees for Best Cinematography are made up of: one returning nominee, one longtime veteran of the industry finally getting his due, one up-and-coming darling of the indie scene, one newcomer shortlisted for his feature film debut, and one individual who is (shockingly) on his first nomination despite shooting one of the most picturesque Best Picture winners (!) in recent memory.

Let's explore the five achievements the Academy has chosen to reward these artists for, presented in ascending order of personal preference…

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Where are the docs in the technical categories?

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Almost two weeks after the Oscar nominations and one snub still stings: Welcome to Chechnya in Visual Effects. After making it in the shortlist, hopes were high that its life-saving use of facial replacements could catapult it to Oscar history as the first documentary to be nominated in this category, one largely dominated by Hollywood blockbusters (which were mostly missing last year) Only a year like 2020 could have brought a documentary film close to this category and it still did not happen. 

This begs the question: why are documentaries routinely ignored in categories outside of Documentary Feature? 

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A chaotic awards season continues with the ASC nominations. "Cherry" anyone?

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...

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FYC: Sean Bobbitt for Best Cinematography

by Cláudio Alves

Director Shaka King (left) and Cinematographer Sean Bobbitt (right)

Sean Bobbitt started as a news camera shooter, a photojournalist more than a cineaste. His first feature was Michael Winterbottom's 1999 Cannes Competition entry Wonderland, an auspicious beginning to what would become a splendorous filmography. The collaboration with British director Steve McQueen came to define the cinematographer's career, their work running the gamut from commercials to museum installations and award-winning films like Hunger, Shame, and 12 Years a Slave. Despite all this, Sean Bobbitt has never been nominated for an Oscar. Thanks to Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah, that sad state of affairs may be about to change…

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Oscar Race: Best Cinematography

Here's an interesting punditry challenge. We aren't going to find out what the American Society of Cinematographers feels about this past year in cinema until March 9th, which is the day before the Academy's ballots are due. This allows us one whole month to wonder what the cinematographers in the industry are feeling about what they're looking at. Anything is possible, really, until it's not. Remember when Germany's Never Look Away scored an out of nowhere nod just two years ago? Here's what our crystal ball says right now though its imagery isn't always in focus.

PREDICTIONS

the only locks...

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