Ranking Roger Deakins' Oscar Nominations

by Cláudio Alves

Roger Deakins on the set of EMPIRE OF LIGHT | © Searchlight Pictures

Since two categories merged into one, no director of photography has amassed as many Oscar nominations as Roger Deakins. The British cinematographer earned his 16th nod this year for Sam Mendes' Empire of Light, having previously won for 1917 and Blade Runner 2049. His career spans continents and six decades, encompassing projects as varied as a Marvin Gaye video clip and pioneering work in animated cinema. What started as an early interest in the possibilities of digital filmmaking has turned into a veritable pursuit of innovation, bringing classic technique to virtual spaces. A visionary, a pioneer, a living legend, Roger Deakins is one of a kind.

To celebrate the master, let's look back at his many Oscar nominations, ranking them along the way. After all, in times of awards fever, everyone loves a good list…

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Oscar Volley: Oscar's Choice for "Best Cinematography" (and more)

The team is pairing off to discuss each Oscar race. Here's Glenn Dunks and Eric Blume...

ELVIS Cinematography by Mandy Walker OSCAR NOMINATED

GLENN: Hi Eric, let's talk all things camera and light—it's Best Cinematography. Can I just start by asking one big question regarding this particular category. What happened to Top Gun: Maverick here? Claudio Miranda, previous Oscar winner for Life of Pi, was supposed to be our runaway favorite and yet on nomination morning, Lydia Tár claimed one final scalp amid her reign of terror. And a second question, I suppose. Did that Top Gun miss just hand this trophy to All Quiet on the Western Front? As much as I am craving a win for Mandy Walker (for many reasons including how historic it would be), I just can't see anything but the German war movie coming out on top here.

ERIC:  Glenn, two excellent questions.  Let's tackle the first...

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Cinematography - the guild nominations

by Nathaniel R

EMPIRE OF LIGHT

One of our favourite guild awards each year is the American Society of Cinematographers. This is not, primarily for their main category but the "spotlight" category which gives us a peek at which films far outside the main Oscar conversation they actually watched and thought about from a craft standpoint. More guilds should have awards like this. Their nominees are after the jump...

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Oscar Volley: Best Cinematography Predictions

Team Experience will be discussing each Oscar category as we head into the precursors. Here's Christopher James and Eric Blume...

BABYLON

CHRIS:  The Cinematography category has recently skewed heavily towards Best Picture nominees. Years like 2012 - 2015 would often have 2-3 nominees from outside the Best Picture race. However, the past three years have only had one non-Best Picture nominee crack the lineup (The Tragedy of Macbeth, News of the World, and The Lighthouse respectively). Sensing this trend, I'm starting my predictions by looking at the most likely overlaps between Picture and Cinematography this year. Janusz Kaminski is in good position for lensing The Fabelmans. Not only is it the presumed Best Picture frontrunner, but Kaminski is a two-time winner who has recently scored nominations for Spielberg projects like West Side Story, Lincoln and War Horse.

Bigger is often better, so I'm considering the other epics in the Best Picture race. Even with mixed reactions, Babylon is a large beast and Linus Sandgren has an Oscar for another film with director Damien Chazelle, La La Land...

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TIFF: "Empire of Light"

by Matt St Clair

The trailer for Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light promises to capture, if you will, the spirit of the Nicole Kidman AMC ad. Something that depicts the escapist power of moviegoing and 'that indescribable feeling we get when the lights dim.' As Toby Jones’ projectionist character says at one point, there is something about the experience of that beam of light bursting from the projector when the previews start, the theater darkens, and we’re all huddled together to escape into another place or time. 

In the film’s entirety, are we treated to the ode to moviegoing that the trailer promises? The answer is... somewhat. As it turns out, Empire of Light serves as a meditation on both mental illness and race as well as the power of cinema...

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