Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

The five nominees are...


http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1389209602
The Grandmaster, Philippe Le Sourd

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1389887862
Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1389213259
Inside Llewyn Davis, Bruno Delbonnel

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1389887892
Nebraska, Phedon Papamichael

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1389209602
Prisoners, Roger Deakins

.
.
.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Gravity obviously. Really glad to see Prisoners nominated, though. Roger Deakins did a wonderful job in that film.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Will be Gravity, should be Inside Llewyn Davis.

Yep and Yep

Knowing the academy, this category is obviously going to Gravity.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Gravity looks amazing, hard to say whether a CGI heavy film should win cinematography though. Prisoners looks amazing and would probably be my pick. Can't wait to see Llewyn Davis.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Prisoners blew me away on Blu-ray. One of the best movies I've seen in high definition. I'm voting for that because, well, I loved the way it looked and I haven't seen the others and it has Jake Gyllenhaal in it.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Can somebody explain to me how best cinematography is chosen? What distinguishes these films from any other film? What is it that makes them better than others? I really don't understand :/

Same here. As I was watching it I was thinking, "wow, the cinematographer of this film is really good".

Then I realized why it looked so great as soon as the credits rolled.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Agreed. The aesthetic was one of the best things about the movie. Seems like there is a Deakins movie that blows everyone away every year.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

I loved the look of Inside Llewyn Davis, I thought the film looks stunning as did Prisoners. But I picked Gravity. The film looked absolutely mesmerizing when I was in the movie theater.Visuals were(pardon the pun) literally out of this world.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Gravity will win this category easily.

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Rush really should have gotten a nomination for cinematography

Re: Best Cinematography Oscar 2014
 

Gravity will take it.

In this category, like most of the categories, it is the people who work in that trade and are Academy members who do the nominating. The other cinematographers who had nominating ballots are the ones who did the choosing, here, so you have to ask them or guess why they, as group, picked these five. You can assume that somebody who does it for a living has their own set of criteria, and that a layperson or even an Academy member from one of the other branches (actors, directors, sound mixers, executives, etc.) may well have different criteria. And while they may have a different level of appreciation for the art of cinematography, I'm sure that, as individuals, they are just as prone as every other one of the branches to count the film's overall quality versus "just" the cinematography, and to vote for their friends and mentors, or to not vote for cinematographers that they don't like for one reason or another, be it personal or professional. They are human, and I don't doubt that if they have had bad experiences working with one director or producer or whoever may be involved in a project, they may sometimes not vote for a film of theirs, even if it is very well shot.

However, once the nominees have been announced, every Academy member with a ballot gets to decide from among those five which is the "best". Whether they have an intimate, intricate understanding of what goes into the craft or not.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1390181529
.
.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1391486061

This past weekend, the American Society of Cinematographers bestowed their annual award for the best work in a feature film. Emmanuel Lubezki won for Gravity. As for how accurate a predictor for Oscar: well, not very. The ASC has been giving this award since 1986. In the twenty-seven years since, their award has only paired with Oscar ten times. That is a measly 37%.

Even with that negative history, Gravity should still be considered the favorite.

.
.

Ten days until the Academy Awards and we find out if Gravity's visual brilliance lands it this trophy.

How about snubs here? Anybody think there was a wonderfully shot movie from last year that didn't make the Oscar's list of five but should have?

Not surprisingly, Terrence Malick's To the Wonder is magnificently shot, by Emmanuel Lubezki, who is the favorite for Gravity, anyway. It didn't generate the kinds of awards attention that The Tree of Life did, nor is it as intricately designed as far as motion the way that Cuarón's film is, but it's beautiful to look at, for sure.

I also liked Adam Stone's work in Jeff Nichols' Mud and I hope they continue to collaborate, Sean Bobbitt captured some terrific stuff in Derek Cianfrance's The Place Beyond the Pines, and I thought Hoyte Van Hoytema and Spike Jonze very deftly combined L.A. and Shanghai for a subtle but extremely effective and evocative near-future Los Angeles in Her. I kind of can't believe that, even with a fairly limited filmography, that Van Hoytema hasn't been Oscar nominated yet. Let the Right One In, The Fighter, Her and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy are all top-notch. He's the D.P. for Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, releasing late in 2014, so he may very well be on the Oscar rolls next time.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1392909173

Luca Bigazzi for La grande bellezza comes to mind, but it's "foreign" so you know...

http://www.movieforums.com/community...1&d=1393971424

Again, completely unsurprising, but well deserved, and a bit of a belated Oscar for Emmanuel Lubezki, who definitely should have won before this (in his five previous nominations), certainly for The Tree of Life. Anyway, he's got one, now.

Maybe next year will finally be Roger Deakins' turn with Unbroken? Tune in next March.

.