84th Academy Awards – ‘Best Cinematography’

Role of the Cinematographer:

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera (the art and science of which is known as cinematography). The title is generally equivalent to director of photography (DP), used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image.

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Voting Procedures:

A ‘Reminder List’ of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all members of the Cinematographers Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five motion pictures.

The five productions receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Cinematography award.

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Nominations:

The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman

As director of photography on Michel Hazanavicius's silent feature, his black-and-white photography has been praised ever since the film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival.   Guillaume has been nominated for 8 different prestigious awards for his work on this film, and as a whole, ‘The Artist’ is coming into the Oscars with a lot of momentum. 

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth

This is Jeff’s third collaboration with David Fincher, serving as DP on Fight Club and The Social Network, the latter of which he received an Oscar nomination.  Jeff has been nominated for 6 other prestigious awards for his work on this film.

Hugo – Robert Richardson

This is Robert’s 7^th Oscar nomination, having won twice for ‘JFK’ and ‘The Aviator’, and previously nominated for ‘Inglorious Bastards’, ‘Snow Falling of Cedar’, ‘Born on the 4^th of July’, and ‘Platoon’.  Being the go-to DP for Martin Scrosese, Quentin Tarantino, and Oliver Stone this guys could seriously be the hardest working cinematographer in the business. 

BTW:  ‘Hugo’ is only the second 3D movie to be nominated in this category. 

The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki

With his 5^th nomination and no wins under his belt, some critics feel this is Emmanuel’s year.  His previous nominations were for ‘The Little Princess’, ‘Sleepy Hallow’, ‘The New World’, and ‘Children of Men’.  Please note, none of the movies he’s been nominated for were up for Best Picture… until now.  And let me say… so far in the awards season… he’s been mopping up!

War Horse – Janusz Kamiński

This is Janusz Kaminski’s 6^th nomination, having won previously for ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Schindler's List’.  Janusz could actually be the second hardest working DP in the business; not only is he Stephen Spielberg’s go-to cinematographer, he also shot ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly’, one of my person favorites ‘Funny People’, and ‘Jerry Maguire’.  I love his work, but I think he’s the underdog this year.

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Snubs:

Manuel Albert Claro, the DP of ‘Melancholia’ is the clearest snub in the technical awards (not counting the issues I have with Visual Effects).  Manuel has actually garnered the second largest number of nominations from critic associations worldwide and is the winner of the European Film Critics Award for Cinematography (for with ‘The Artist’ was also nominated).

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Oscar Trends:

Okay, so… there is no need to do any fancy statistical analysis here.  Researching historical trends isn’t going to help, because this category is pretty straight forward. 

Emmanuel Lubezki (‘The Tree of Life’) is currently undefeated, having already won 12 critics awards.  The only film that has come close to blemishing Emmanuel’s perfect record is ‘War Horse’ who tied ‘The Tree of Life’ for the win at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards.

And remember, ‘The Tree of Life’ is an American film, so it wasn’t eligible for the European Film Critics Award.

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Prediction: The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki

For my complete (weighted) list of Oscar Predictions click here!