Oscars Best Cinematography overview: Two veterans and three first-time nominees make this a tough category
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Best Cinematography at the Oscars will be a particularly interesting category this year, since two of the nominees are the only nominations received by their respective films.
SEEJohn Williams (‘The Fabelmans’): 5 reasons why we’re all underestimating him at Oscars
It’s also interesting because four movies that received quite a bit of below-the-line support from other academy branches –”Top Gun: Maverick,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” “The Batman,” and even the presumptive Best Picture favorite, “Everything Everywhere All At Once” – were omitted from the category. In fact, none of the bigger theatrical releases were nominated in favor of two streaming movies, two movies that didn’t make much of a dent at the box office, and Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Also, only two of this year’s Cinematography-nominated films received a Production Design nomination (“Elvis” and “All Quiet on the Western Front”), whereas last year the two categories matched five-for-five.
More from GoldDerby
Going back to the original “Avatar” in 2009, only one movie that won for Cinematography went on to win Best Picture, Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Birdman.” “Slumdog Millionaire” won both categories the year before that, but otherwise, you’d have to go back to 1999 and Sam Mendes’s “American Beauty” for another Best Cinematography/Picture winner. In the past, it was far more common for the two categories to be linked, but one can’t really assume that getting a Cinematography nomination (or even winning) gives a greater advantage to the three movies this year that also are nominated for Picture.
“All Quiet on the Western Front” – James Friend, ASC, BSC
A real powerhouse in the latter stages of this year’s Oscar race has been Edward Berger’s WWI drama, shot by first-time Oscar nominee James Friend, who previously worked with Berger on the Showtime series “Patrick Melrose” and “Your Honor.” Friend helped Berger capture the massive war sequences for the film, and this is the only nominee in this race that also received nominations for both Production Design and Visual Effects, three closely-linked categories that reward the look of a film.
In some ways, this film is reminiscent of Guillermo del Toro’s 2006 film, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” which received a nomination for Foreign Language Film as well as crafts nominations but ended up not winning the Foreign Language category. Ironically, that was defeated by Germany’s selection that year, “The Lives of Others,” though “All Quiet” has far more weight by having received nine nominations total including Best Picture. Friend recently won the BAFTA for cinematography, although he wasn’t nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC).
SEE‘Past Lives’: Celine Song’s Sundance breakout gets its first trailer from A24 [Watch]
“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” – Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC
If you regularly pore through film credits, you’re likely to have seen Darius Khondji’s name on films by James Gray (“The Immigrant”) and Woody Allen (“Midnight in Paris”), among many others. He’s been a cinematographer for close to 40 years. Oddly, though, Khondji has only been nominated once before for Alan Parker’s “Evita,” starring Madonna, way back in 1997.
Although Alejandro G. Iñarritu’s Mexico-set drama didn’t receive any other Oscar love, it did receive a corresponding ASC nomination for Khondji’s deft camera and lighting work, which greatly contributes to the film’s breathtaking original and visually-adept sequences. The question is whether Khondji’s veteran status, compared to everyone else in this category besides Roger Deakins, will give him an advantage with academy voters who know his name or have worked with him. We’ve seen many winners in this category for movies that were not nominated for Best Picture, so it wouldn’t be that strange.
“Elvis” – Mandy Walker, AM, ASC, ACS
Australian cinematographer Mandy Walker previously worked with director Baz Luhrmann on his 2008 film “Australia,” but she has received her first Oscar nomination for what has become one of the filmmaker’s most successful films. “Elvis” has received eight Oscar nominations with six of them in the below-the-line categories, and the look of the film can be equally attributed to Walker’s skill with camera and lighting as to production designers Catherine Martin and Karen Murphy. It’s going to be interesting to see whether academy voters award Martin her fifth Oscar as credit for that look, if they make Walker the very first woman to ever win in her category, or maybe even both.
SEESteven Spielberg brings down the house with speech at Berlin Film Festival
“Empire of Light” – Roger Deakins CBE, BSC, ASC
At this point, it should surprise no one whenever two-time Oscar winner Roger Deakins is nominated for his work, but Sam Mendes’s personal movie about the workers at a beachside UK movie theater in the early ‘80s barely got a theatrical release, giving it very little traction for its star, Olivia Colman, any of the supporting cast, or Mendes himself.
However, Deakins’s involvement with the film – following previous collaborations with Mendes on 2019’s “1917” (for which Deakins received his second Oscar) and 2012’s “Skyfall” (Deakins’s 10th nomination) – meant that everything about it is well shot, even if it’s not as visually show-stopping as “1917” or some of his work with director Denis Villeneuve (such as “Blade Runner 2049,” for which Deakins received his first Oscar). Still, the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) also nominated Deakins for his work on the movie. Cinematographers appreciate Deakins, but will the rest of the academy in this case?
“TÁR” – Florian Hoffmeister, BSC
The third movie in this category that also received a Best Picture nomination is Todd Field’s drama, starring the presumptive front-runner for Best Actress, Cate Blanchett. This actually has a connection to “All Quiet on the Western Front” in that Field first saw Florian Hoffmeister’s work on the AMC series “The Terror,” directed by Edward Berger, and hired him for “TÁR.”
This was a surprise bid because Hoffmeister was one of two nominees in this category who hadn’t received an ASC nomination. (“The Batman” and “Top Gun: Maverick” were the two ASC nominees that didn’t carry over to the academy.) Field’s film definitely looks great in the way Hoffmeister captured Blanchett’s Lydia Tár in the various places her tumultuous career as a conductor takes her.
This might be a tough category to predict, although the support that “All Quiet on the Western Front” has received across the board and the connection between Best Cinematography and other categories could give it an advantage, confirmed by how it’s dominating with Gold Derby experts and how it won at the BAFTAs. Then again, there’s no denying Darius Khondji’s impressive body of work that might convince some voters to tick his name on their ballot.
PREDICTthe 2023 Oscar winners through March 12
Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?
Best of GoldDerby
Sign up for Gold Derby's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
