For my taste I would probably jettison both
The Irishman and
Joker from this category. And I'd replace them with any two of these...
Jörg Widmer for
The Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)
Widmer is a German-born camera operator who has worked his way up to cinematographer. After assisting Emmanuel Lubezki on Malick's previous five films (
The New World through
Song to Song) he ascended to the top job for
The Hidden Life. Shot mostly in the mountains of Austria it probably has less movement and invention than Lubezki's work, but it is stunning, breathtaking on the big screen.
The Hidden Life was completely ignored by the Academy, but it is Malick's best work since
The Tree of Life.
Hung-i Yao, Jingsong Dong, and David Chizallet for
Long Day’s Journey Into Night - 地球最后的夜晚 (Gan Bi)
Sadly I did not get to see this one on the big screen. Even so the images are perfection, culminating in an hour-long single shot that ends the film. And it's not an hour long the way
1917 was done with invisible edits, but a true, one hour take, wandering through a dream after falling asleep in the cinema. It is artsy-fartsy stuff, ambitions of being Wong Kar-Wai crossed with Fellini or something, but while not screamingly original it is one of those that was worth seeing for the cinematography alone. The design and execution of that long take should have been deemed award-worthy.
Yorick Le Saux for
High Life (Claire Denis)
Yorick also shot Gerwig's
Little Women this year but it is Denis' brutal Sci-Fi piece that was the standout for me. The French-born Le Saux has been doing strong work for years including Luca Guadagnino's
A Bigger Splash and
I Am Love, François Ozon's
Potiche, Olivier Assayas'
Clouds of Sils Maria and
Personal Shopper, and Jim Jarmusch's
Only Lovers Left Alive. Like just about all of Denis' work it surely ain't for everyone, but she remains one of my favorite filmmakers and this movie was the intense and troubling voyage I expected. Visually I liked it more than Hoyte Van Hoytema's work on James Grey's bigger budgeted
Ad Astra.
Claire Mathon for
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
This was my favorite costume period piece of the year, for both the compelling forbidden love story and for its visuals. This is the first thing I have seen that was shot by Mathon and I will definitely seek her out again.
Mike Gioulakis for
Under the Silver Lake (David Robert Mitchell)
Mitchell and Gioulakis had their breakthrough in 2014 with the effective and clever
It Follows. Cinematographer Mike Gioulakis had a rather amazing year with his work in M. Night Shyamalan's
Glass, Jordan Peele's
Us, and
Under the Silver Lake all released within a few months of each other. All have excellent visuals but for me it was
Under the Silver Lake I found myself immersed in. As a film it doesn't quite work, a paranoid thriller that is more style than substance, but wow, what style. A fever dream Los Angeles that I visited several times. The repeat viewings were not to better discern the plot but to simply enjoy the images.
Adam Newport-Berra for
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot)
This was one of my favorite films of the year. It got some awards attention from the likes of The Gotham and Film Independent Spirit Awards, but it could have racked up plenty more, including Oscars, and definitely for Newport-Berra's photography. I lived in San Francisco for a couple years in the '90s and this movie is one of the most beautiful cinematic portraits of that classic city.