ASC and BAFTA Go Cuckoo for Chivo
Monday, February 15, 2016 at 11:00PM
Jose here. In what turned out to be a surprise to absolutely no one, Emmanuel Lubezki managed a historical threepeat from the American Society of Cinematographers who gave him yet another award for his use of natural light in The Revenant (he also won his third straight BAFTA).
Chivo is now the ASC’s biggest winner having earned five awards (out of six nominations) since 1999 (he has only lost for Sleepy Hollow) Somewhere Roger Deakins must be thrilled Lubezki didn’t have any movies out in 2012 (technically To the Wonder came out, but it sadly went by dismissed by most groups), since that year he won his third award for Skyfall and “prevented” Chivo from winning the award every year since 2011 (the Oscar-less Deakins more than doubles Chivo’s ASC nods though, having earned 14, the highest for any ASC member).
Considering Chivo is now the hands on favorite for the Oscar (in what will be yet another rare consecutive threepeat) it might be fruitless to point out that other than for the last two years, ASC and Oscar have had quite some disagreements; since the year 2000, ASC has awarded eight cinematographers their top prize while Oscar has gone a different route. All of those winners were also nominated for the Oscar though, so it’s unlikely we’ll see a Robert Richardson upset this year since ASC went for Janusz Kaminski’s work in Bridge of Spies instead. As The Revenant keeps steamrolling its competition, I can’t help but wish for a glamorous spread of Judy the Bear in Vanity Fair or Vogue sometime soon. Photographed by Chivo of course.
Reader Comments (9)
Since 2000, I'd say AMPAS did a better job of recognizing great talent than the ASC. The Oscars went for Ida, War Horse, Pan's Labyrinth, The New World, House of Flying Daggers and City of God and the ASC did not.
But one instance where the Oscars totally blew it was when they snubbed 12 Years a Slave. The ASC nominated the film, but they included it with six other movies for some reason.
As for this year, I'm rooting for Roger Deakins to finally win. Even if Chivo's a shoe-in.
I am rooting for John Seale
cal: I'm rooting for Deakins as well. I probably wouldn't if he had won before (probably should have for Skyfall or Prisoners), but Seale has won before and this is getting ridiculous.
Yeah I'm rooting for Deakins. It'd be great if Seale won but it's just absurd that Deakins hasn't won yet. And that he's going to lose...again...for a The New World retread. Y'all. Come on now.
Maybe it's the millennial in me, but I really do view these industry award noms/wins as participation ribbons and it's kind of sad when someone just hogs all the awards (lately Julia Louis-Dreyfuss at the Emmys is the most egregious - I mean FIVE fucking wins, in a ROW? in addition to three others you already have? take yourself the fuck out of consideration already) and basically sideline everyone else. Just seems so unfair to me.
These two guys have dominated the Oscar category for 22 years now. From 1995 through 2016 there's been only 4 years (2003-2005 and 2010) when one of them was not nominated. Curiously enough, they have coincided only last year and now. For the record, I am rooting for Lubezki.
At this point Deakins is tied with George J. Folsey for the most nominations (13) without a win. However, Folsey was active at a time when there were two awards for cinematography, one for color films and the other one for b&w films. That meant 10 nominees per year. I believe Deakins will have a better chance either with Hail, Caesar! (which I have not seen yet) or with the upcoming Blade Runner sequel.
As much as I appreciated the work of Deakins and Seale (and also Maryse Alberti's unheralded lensing of Creed as well as the team behind Tangerine), Lubezki was operating at another level this year. So much about what made The Revenant a great film comes down to Chivo. There's an intimacy to the compositions and use of natural light, and he manages to put his audience inside the action. I'm sure there will be years when Chivo's cinematography won't represent the artform's highest achievement. For all of 2015's impressive achievements, this was not that year.
Marcos: 3 years. Deakins was nominated for True Grit.
Rahul: I think the Emmy's should have instituted a "if you've won, you won't be nominated again for that" system, to encourage "Golden Age of TV" thinking.
Volvagia: Thanks for pointing that out, but I was referring to the years when the awards were handed out. Not to the elegibility year. In any case, I checked the data with IMDB and it turns out that it's 5 times. Neither of the two was nominated in the following elegibility years: 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2009.
It is absolutely insane to win three years in a row. But Chivo deserves the Oscar. His work last year was pure genius.