by Nathaniel R
Cherry (2021) surprises with an ASC nomination.
This awards season continues to deliver one surprise after another. But almost all of those surprises have involved recency bias in one way or another. That's an odd problem to encounter this year, if you stop to think on it. Everyone has been locked up at home for an entire year, presumably watching their many screens that whole time with little else to do for entertainment. You'd think this past film year of all film years, guild and Oscar voters would have been watching more movies and not waiting around for their screeners like they usually do. Shouldn't we have had less recency bias problems this year rather than more?
Here are the nominees from the American Society of Cinematographers and some notes on the Oscar race as well...
Feature Film
- Erik Messerschmidt, Mank
- Phedon Papamichael, The Trial of the Chicago 7
- Joshua James Richards, Nomadland
- Newton Thomas Sigel, Cherry
- Dariusz Wolski, News of the World
Cherry, a very recent release that was not critically well-received, is of course the total shocker here. Newton Thomas Sigel also shot Da 5 Bloods this year. He's never been nominated for an Oscar though he has done some worthy work in the past (especially with Drive and Three Kings).
No nomination here is a real bummer for Minari, Tenet, First Cow, Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah, and more. But all is not lost. ASC and Oscar line up exactly only about 30% of the time (recently at least) though it's almost always 4/5...
In the Aughts though, 3/5 splits of opinion happened twice. In 2006 ASC went for Apocalypto and The Good Shepherd but Oscar replaced them with Pan's Labyrinth and The Prestige (yes, Oscar definitely traded up that year!). Before that there was another 3/5 split in 2004 when Oscar voters rejected ASC choices Collateral and Ray and replaced them with House of Flying Daggers and Phantom of the Opera.
So who is vulnrable this year and might we finally have a 3/5 split again? Cherry might be vulnerable since the reception has been ice cold but maybe Chicago 7, too? Last year the ASC nominated Phedon Papamichael (here again for Chicago 7) for the car racing drama Ford V Ferrari but Oscar passed him over for something from the ASC's own "Spotlight" category. More on that in a minute.
Here is the past decade with the differing films in bold and the winners marked by stars.
| 2019 ASC | 2019 OSCAR |
| 1917 ★ Ford V Ferrari Irishman Joker Once Upon a Time |
1917 ★ Irishman Joker The Lighthouse Once Upon a Time |
| 2018 ASC | 2018 OSCAR |
| Cold War ★ The Favourite First Man Roma A Star is Born |
Cold War The Favourite Never Look Away Roma ★ A Star is Born |
| 2017 ASC | 2017 OSCAR |
| Blade Runner 2049 ★ Darkest Hour Dunkirk Mudbound The Shape of Water |
Blade Runner 2049 ★ Darkest Hour Dunkirk Mudbound The Shape of Water |
| 2016 ASC | 2016 OSCAR |
| Arrival La La Land Lion ★ Moonlight Silence |
Arrival La La Land ★ Lion Moonlight Silence |
| 2015 ASC | 2015 OSCAR |
| Bridge of Spies Carol Mad Max Fury Road The Revenant ★ Sicario |
Carol Hateful Eight Mad Max Fury Road The Revenant ★ Sicario |
| 2014 ASC | 2014 OSCAR |
| Birdman ★ Grand Budapest Hotel Imitation Game Mr Turner Unbroken |
Birdman ★ Grand Budapest Hotel Ida Mr Turner Unbroken |
| 2013 ASC | 2013 OSCAR |
| 12 Years a Slave Captain Phillips The Grandmaster Gravity ★ Inside Llewyn Davis Nebraska Prisoners |
The Grandmaster Gravity ★ Inside Llewyn Davis Nebraska Prisoners |
| 2012 ASC | 2012 OSCAR |
| Anna Karenina Les Miserables Life of Pi Lincoln Skyfall ★ |
Anna Karenina Django Unchained Life of Pi ★ Lincoln Skyfall |
| 2011 ASC | 2011 OSCAR |
| The Artist Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Hugo Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy The Tree of Life ★ |
The Artist Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Hugo ★ The Tree of Life War Horse |
| 2010 ASC | 2010 OSCAR |
| Black Swan Inception ★ The King's Speech The Social Network True Grit |
Black Swan Inception ★ The King's Speech The Social Network True Grit |
Spotlight
- Katelin Arizmendi Swallow
- Aurélien Marra Two of Us
- Andrey Naydenov Dear Comrades!
I was thrilled to see Swallow here which made my own semifinals for Best Cinematography and was also in my top twenty list for Best of 2020.
The "Spotlight" category has been pretty amazing since the ASC began it in 2013 Though how the same guild that cherishes emerging artists in challenging cinema, often foreign and indie, is the same that loves the solid but unspectacular visuals of movies like Trial of the Chicago 7 is a complete mystery! That said, it must be a specialized committee within ASC that votes on this prize since they've gone with movies much more obscure than the three they selected this year, two of which are finalists for the Best International Film Oscar nominations. When the ASC differs from Oscar's cinematography branch in their main category, it's usually in deference to mainstream box office hits (examples include but are not limited to: Les Miserables, Pearl Harbor, The Sixth Sense, Ford v Ferrari, Apocalypto, Ray, Crimson Tide, The Perfect Storm, and King Kong)
Only two movies nominated for "Spotlight" have gone on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Cinematography since its creation and both were in black and white: Poland's Ida (2013) and the horror-tinged period drama The Lighthouse (2019).
Documentary
- Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw The Truffle Hunters
- Viktor Kosakovskiy and Egil Håskjold Larsen Gunda
- Gianfranco Rosi Notturno
Yay Gunda! Gunda is the first doc I've ever nominated in my own Best Cinematography award. No documentary (to our knowledge) has been nominated at the Oscars for Best Cinematography since the 1950s... but maybe this'll be the year. Oscar does love black and white movies.
Motion Picture, Limited Series, or Pilot Made for Television
- Martin Ahlgren, ASC The Plot Against America, “Part 6”
- Anette Haellmigk The Great, “The Great”
- Pete Konczal Fargo, “The Birthplace of Civilization”
- Steven Meizler The Queen’s Gambit, “End Game”
- Gregory Middleton, ASC, CSC Watchmen, “This Extraordinary Being”
This is the second recent nomination we've seen for Watchmen (can't remember which other guild) and it remains mystifying. Watchmen began and ended in 2019 (October 20th-December 15th) so how is it still eligible for awards honoring the work of 2020 when it already received so many awards last season honoring the year when it actually ran (2019). The episode it's being cited for here aired just before thanksgiving in 2019.
It did not have a second season so what are we missing about its awards this year? Anyone?
Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial
Motherland: Fort Salem "Up is Down"
- Marshall Adams, ASC Better Call Saul, “Bagman”
- Carlos Catalán Killing Eve, “Meetings Have Biscuits”
- François Dagenais, CSC Project Blue Book, “Area 51”
- Jon Joffin, ASC Motherland: Fort Salem, “Up is Down”
- C. Kim Miles, ASC, CSC, MySC Project Blue Book, “Operation Mainbrace”
Episode of a One-Hour Television Series - Non-Commercial
Lucifer special b&w episode. ASC never passes up a chance to honor black and white work.
- David Franco Perry Mason, “Chapter 2”
- Ken Glassing Lucifer, “It Never Ends Well for the Chicken”
- Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC, BSC The Crown, “Fairytale”
- David Greene, ASC, CSC Impulse, “The Moroi”
- M. David Mullen, ASC The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, “It’s Comedy or Cabbage”
- Fabian Wagner, ASC, BSC The Crown, “Imbroglio”
Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series
- Ava Berkofsky Insecure, “Lowkey Lost”
- Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS The Mandalorian, “Chapter 1: The Mandalorian”
- Baz Idoine The Mandalorian, “Chapter 13: The Jedi”
- Matthew Jensen, ASC The Mandalorian, “Chapter 15: The Believer”
- Jas Shelton Homecoming, “Giant”
Oh wait, now we're honoring 2019 and 2020 television simultaneously with two different episodes of the Mandalorian that aired more than a year about in two completely different seasons of the show. What is happening with ASC's calendar?!? I double checked and they did in fact have television categories last year honoring 2019 television. Though the latest episode i could see honored was in the summer of 2019 so perhaps they were on a different summer to summer calendar and have now switched to a new calendar year calendar with extra months thrown in?
ARE WE GOING CRAZY OR IS THERE A LOGICAL EXPLANATION?