One Category at a Time: Cinematography

With only 24 days until the Oscars, it's time to run down the categories and make some official predictions. I'll start off with some of the categories I consider fairly settled, and among them is Best Cinematography.

My Award nominations: Cinematography

This is perennially my favourite category, and as it is every year, there was an abundance of excellent work to choose from. The Academy and I match up 3/5 this year. Find out which three they are, and what other two films I included as having the Best Cinematography of 2012 after the cut (complete with my fav shot from each nominee):

Review - Lincoln

In a fashion uncharacteristic of his famously dazzling aesthetic, Steven Spielberg has produced one of the finest films of his career in Lincoln; a densely worded but deftly handled political drama that illuminates the man behind the myth as he fought to enact the 13^th amendment.

In the waning days the American Civil War, the two-term president (Daniel Day-Lewis) stares down the horns of a dilemma as put to him by his Secretary of State William Seward (David Strathairn): Either he can entertain negotiations from Confederate delegates to bring about an end to the conflict now in its fourth year, or he can push for the abolition of slavery, dangling it as a carrot before the divided House of Representatives as a quicker alternative to peace. Opting for the latter, “Honest” Abe is forced into some decidedly manipulative politicking. As behind-the-scenes history plays out, we see how freedom for the slaves was not so much won on the floors of Congress as it was craftily massaged into being from the smoky drawing rooms of Washington.

One Category at a Time: Cinematography

If you're no stranger to the blog you probably already know that Best Cinematography is always my favourite category at the Oscars. Not only because of my personal fascination with the craft, but because it always proves so devilishly tricky to predict. It's an area where the precursors tend to be deceptively offtrack, and ideologies on how the whole Academy votes shift from year to year. This year's slate (the only one I correctly predicted 5/5) houses five contenders which are equally plausible winners for completely different reasons. My rationales, accompanied by my favourite shot from each nominee, are outlined after the cut.

ASC nominees

The American Society of Cinematographers nominees are:
The Artist, Guillaume Shiffman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo, Robert Richardson
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hoyte van Hoytema
The Tree of Life, Emmanuel Lubezki

Nice bit of love for Hoyte van Hoytema, who I'd have loved to see get an Oscar nom three years back for Let the Right One In. His work on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is similarly nuanced and visually articulate. Very classy selection, ASC.

The other four were largely expected, and I predict will be chalked up for the Oscar.

The conspicuous absence of War Horse from the majority of guild citations so far might be a telling sign. While I still think Janusz Kaminski gets in with the Academy's cinematographers branch, the story these guild snubs tell for the film as a whole is rather ominous. With only a PGA nod (in a ten-wide field) under its belt, it's time to shift it from being a safe Best Picture bet to being on the bubble.

Review - A Spielberg double feature

For New Years Eve I took advantage of a unique opportunity; the chance to view two new Steven Spielberg features on the same day. Spielberg has had four others years in which he released two films, but never simultaneously, so this is kind of a first both for him and his eager fans. The two films in question are awards pony War Horse and "animated" action/adventure Tintin. Both my reviews after the cut.

One Category at a Time: Best Cinematography

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.