2020 ASC Awards

The five nominees for The American Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Theatrical Release are...


Roger Deakins, 1917


Phedon Papamichael, Ford vs. Ferrari


Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman


Robert Richardson, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood


Lawrence Sher, Joker


Winner to be revealed January 25, 2020.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Roger Deakins for 1917 is the logical winner.

__________________
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!” ~ Rocky Balboa

This is Roger Deakins' sixteenth ASC nomination. Unlike the Oscars he has plenty of love from his fellow cinematographers. He has four previous wins here: The Shawshank Redemption, The Man Who Wasn't There, Skyfall, and Blade Runner 2049. He won their Lifetime Achievement Award back in 2011.

Robert Richardson won their Lifetime Achievement Award last year and now has eleven nominations. But while he has won three Oscars (JFK, The Aviator, Hugo) he has somehow never won the ASC Award. His ASC nominations were for Born on the Fourth of July, JFK, A Few Good Men, Heaven & Earth, The Horse Whisperer, Snow Falling on Cedars, The Aviator, The Good Shepherd, Inglourious Basterds, Hugo, and now Once Upon A Time in Hollywood.

Rodrigo Prieto has never won an Oscar or an ASC Award. This is his fourth ASC nomination following Frida, Brokeback Mountain, and Silence.

Phedon Papamichael had only one previous ASC and Oscar nomination for Alexander Payne's Nebraska. He also had two ASC nominations in the television categories for "Red Dwarf" and the mini-series "Wild Palms".

This is Lawrence Sher's first nomination. Some of his other credits include Godzilla: King of the Monsters, Dan in Real Life, and I Love You, Man, plus War Dogs, Due Date, and all three of The Hangover movies with Joker's director Todd Phillips.



Richardson having three Oscars and no ASC Award is as odd as it was that Deakins had three ASC Awards and no Oscar before he finally won for Blade Runner 2049. I expect the cinematographers will remedy that and Richardson will prevail for Tarantino's flick this year.

The five Oscar nominees are almost never exactly the same, there will be one or two deviations. But we'll know who makes that cut in about a week.

Is there a worldwide Cinematographers award? Given that the Oscars and Golden Globes are so odiously xenophobic there should be.

The Vulcan award at Cannes is quite prestigious but I don't think it's limited to cinematography.

No.

The Golden Globes do not have an award for cinematography. Never have.

The Oscars are getting better and I would argue that the cinematographers branch who do the nominations for their category are generally more inclusive in regards to international cinema than most of the other Academy Award branches. But that is a low bar to clear and there is definitely a bias towards English language films. Sven Nykvist for the Bergmans Cries & Whispers and Fanny & Alexander were the first two non-English productions to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Peter Pau won for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Guillermo Navarro won for Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, and just last year Alfonso Cuarón won for lensing his own Roma. Five winners in the history of the Award is not a lot, obviously, but there have been five foreign nominees in the past six years, including three of the five last year when Roma won.

When you compare that to the number of foreign language screenwriters or editors or actors that get nominations and wins the cinematographers are more apt to nominate from further away than the industry back yard of Los Angeles.

The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) does nominate foreign language films for their top award, which began in 1986, though the only three winners thus far are Bruno Delbonnel for Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement, Christian Berger for Hanake's The White Ribbon, and last year Łukasz Żal for Cold War.


Correct, there is not a dedicated cinematography category at Cannes. The Vulcan Award is fairly new, dating back to the early 2000s, but not exclusively given to cinematographers. Before that DPs might be honored with the Technical Grand Prize or a random Best Artistic Contribution award, but it is not a regular, annual occurrence at that fest. They have begun a Pierre Angénieux Excellence in Cinematography award just back in 2013, but that is a career achievement recognition and not honoring one of the films in competition.

Thanks for the info. Your post highlights the main reason I have so much distaste for American film awards.

I wonder if the amazing 'Monos' and 'Leto' will get a mention in the upcomign awards. The cinematography on those films was beautiful. I expect 1917 and Joker will feature heavily instead.