As soon as the
Tree of Life trailer hit the Internet, Oscar pundits began proposing that this year's Best Cinematography award may be Emmanuel Lubezki's to lose. The shots featured in the trailer are indeed gorgeous - just the sort of thing they usually go for in this category. Lubezki should already have an Oscar for
Children of Men. Can the four-time nominee finally collect his due? Or are we heading for a repeat of this past year's
Best Cinematography disaster?
David Fincher's
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo remains a question mark in many categories. His last two films have been nominated for their cinematography, but they were Academy-friendly Best Picture contenders. If
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo can manage to impress AMPAS on the same level as
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button or
The Social Network, Jeff Cronenweth may see his second nomination in as many years.
Stephan Goldblatt will bring life to the South of the 1960s in
The Help. He's been nominated before for shooting a similar time and place in
The Prince of Tides, and hopefully will be able to bring the same magic to this project. But The Help doesn't strike me as a typical nominee in this field (although it's hard to judge without having seen any footage). It'll probably need serious Best Picture heat to make it in here.
I like to assume that the always extraordinary two-time winner Robert Richardson only just missed a nomination this past year for his awesome work on
Shutter Island, but he was probably further down the list due to the film's unpopularity. Perhaps Martin Scorsese's
Hugo Cabret will be more to the Academy's liking. It'll surely have lots of wonderful sets and costumes to show off. Being one of the top DPs in the business with seven nods to his name, Richardson must always be considered a contender.
Another two-time winner, Janusz Kaminski, has a strong bid this year courtesy of Steven Spielberg's
War Horse. Both of Kaminski's Oscars came for shooting Spielberg war pictures (
Schindler's List and
Saving Private Ryan). Come to think of it, all of Spielberg's Oscars came for those two movies as well. I'd say that's a pretty successful collaboration, and good reason to predict Kaminski will pick up his fifth career nomination.
Predicted five:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo Cabret
The Tree of Life
War Horse
Also consider: Coriolanus,
Cowboys and Aliens,
Harry Potter 7,
Moneyball,
Super 8,
Water for Elephants.
