‘Cold War’ Wins American Society of Cinematographers Award
“Cold War” cinematographer Łukasz Żal has won the top feature award from the American Society of Cinematographers.
“Cold War,” shot in black and white, topped Alfonso Cuaron’s digital 65mm black-and-white lensing of his own “Roma,” Linus Sandgren’s multi-format work on Damien Chazelle’s moonshot drama “First Man,” Matthew Libatique for Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born,” and Robbie Ryan for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite.”
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Zal was unable to attend the Saturday night ceremonies, now in their 33rd year. The gala took place in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles, with Ben Mankiewicz hosting.
Zal is also up for the Academy Award in cinematography along with Cuaron, Labitique, Ryan and Caleb Deschanel for “Never Look Away.” “Cold War,” directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, is set in Poland and Paris from the late 1940s until the 1960s and follows a musical director and a young singer falling in and out of love. Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig star in a story inspired by the lives of Pawlikowski’s parents.
In addition to Zal’s nomination, “Cold War” is also up for Oscars in Best Director category for Pawlikowski and for Best Foreign Language Film.
Roger Deakins won both the Oscar and the ASC Award last year for “Blade Runner 2049” — his first Academy Award and his fourth ASC trophy. The organizations split two years ago with Greig Fraser taking the ASC for “Lion” and Sandgren winning the Oscar for “La La Land.”
Cuarón became the second director ever nominated by the ASC for shooting his or her own film. Cary Joji Fukunaga was nominated in the Spotlight Award category for “Beasts of No Nation” in 2016.
Adriano Goldman repeated as the non-commercial TV winner for his elegant work on Netflix’s “The Crown,” topping two episodes of Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” “The Man in the High Castle,” “Homeland” and “Peaky Blinders.” Goldman also won last year for “The Crown.”
Jon Joffin won his first ASC award for commercial TV for the “Two Zero One” episode of “Beyond,” topping segments of “Timeless,” “Yellowstone,” “Gotham” and “Damnation.” James Friend won the Motion Picture, Miniseries, or Pilot Made for Television category for the “Bad News” segment of “Patrick Melrose,” beating “Genius: Picasso,” “The Terror,“ the pilot for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” and “Alias Grace.”
The Spotlight Award, which recognizes cinematography in smaller features that may not receive wider theatrical release or awareness, went to Giorgi Shvelidze for “Namme.” Zal won that award in 2014 for “Ida.”
Saturday’s ceremony also celebrated the ASC’s 100th anniversary. Quentin Tarantino honored Robert Richardson with the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award and Jeff Jur received the Career Achievement in Television Award. Jeff Bridges was also honored with the Board of Governors Award and Franz Kraus of ARRI Group received the Bud Stone Award of Distinction.
The winners are in boldface:
Theatrical Release
Alfonso Cuarón for “Roma”
Matthew Libatique, ASC for “A Star is Born”
Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC for “The Favourite”
Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF for “First Man”
Łukasz Żal, PSC for “Cold War” (WINNER)
Spotlight Award
Joshua James Richards for “The Rider”
Giorgi Shvelidze for “Namme” (WINNER)
Frank van den Eeden, NSC, SBC for “Girl”
Episode of a Series for Non-Commercial Television
Gonzalo Amat for “The Man in the High Castle” – “Jahr Null”
Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC for “The Crown” – “Beryl” (WINNER)
David Klein, ASC for “Homeland” – “Paean to the People”
Colin Watkinson, ASC for “The Handmaid’s Tale” – “The Word”
Cathal Watters, ISC for “Peaky Blinders” – “The Company”
Zoë White, ACS for “The Handmaid’s Tale” – “Holly”
Episode of a Series for Commercial Television
Nathaniel Goodman, ASC for “Timeless” – “The King of the Delta Blues”
Jon Joffin, ASC for “Beyond” – “Two Zero One” (WINNER)
Ben Richardson for “Yellowstone” – “Daybreak”
David Stockton, ASC for “Gotham” – “A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight”
Thomas Yatsko, ASC for “Damnation” – “A Different Species”
Motion Picture, Miniseries, or Pilot Made for Television
James Friend, BSC for “Patrick Melrose” – “Bad News” (WINNER)
Mathias Herndl, AAC for “Genius: Picasso” – “Chapter 1”
Florian Hoffmeister, BSC for “The Terror” – “Go for “Broke”
M. David Mullen, ASC for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (pilot)
Brendan Steacy, CSC for “Alias Grace” – “Part 1”
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