The American Society of Cinematographers announced the nominees for its annual awards this afternoon — including a rare nod for a director who served as his own cinematographer.
Director Alfonso Cuarón was nominated in the Theatrical Release category for shooting Roma. Cuarón is said to have decided to take on the DP’s duties when the scale of the shoot expanded and his longtime collaborator, Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, had to drop out due to previous commitments. (“I’ve been very specific and choosy about working with cinematographers that are not Chivo,” he told IndieWire back in July.)
Notably, Roma is just one of the two nominated feature films released in black and white. Polish period piece Cold War, shot by Łukasz Żal, PSC, is the other.
Three more lesser-seen but admired titles are named as contenders for the ASC’s Spotlight Award. (One of them, The Rider, unexpectedly copped the top award from the National Society of Film Critics over the weekend.) We’ve included trailers for those titles below.
Rachel Brosnahan in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Amazon Studios
The ASC also apparently fired up the wayback machine this year — the pilot episode for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel earned a nomination despite having originally premiered on Amazon Prime way back in March 2017. (The ASC’s eligibility period for TV programming ran from Oct. 31, 2017, through November 1, 2018, and the entire first season of Mrs. Maisel wan’t posted until November 2017, which probably explains the delayed reaction somewhat.)
This year’s ASC Awards — including an observation of the ASC’s 100th anniversary — are scheduled for February 9 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland in Hollywood, CA. As previously announced, honorees will include Robert Richardson, ASC, receiving the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award, and Jeff Jur, ASC, receiving the Career Achievement in Television Award.
The ASC’s complete list of 2019 award nominees follows:
Theatrical Release
Alfonso Cuarón for Roma
Matthew Libatique, ASC for A Star is Born
Robbie Ryan, BSC, ISC for The Favourite
Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF for First Man
Łukasz Żal, PSC for Cold War
Spotlight Award
Joshua James Richards for The Rider
Giorgi Shvelidze for Namme
Frank van den Eeden, NSC, SBC for Girl
Episode of a Series for Non-Commercial Television
Gonzalo Amat for The Man in the High Castle, “Jahr Null”
Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC for The Crown, “Beryl”
David Klein, ASC for Homeland, “Paean to the People”
Colin Watkinson, ASC for The Handmaid’s Tale, “The Word”
Cathal Watters, ISC for Peaky Blinders, “The Company”
Zoë White, ACS for The Handmaid’s Tale, “Holly”
Episode of a Series for Commercial Television
Nathaniel Goodman, ASC for Timeless, “The King of the Delta Blues”
Jon Joffin, ASC for Beyond, “Two Zero One”
Ben Richardson for Yellowstone, “Daybreak”
David Stockton, ASC for Gotham, “A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight”
Thomas Yatsko, ASC for Damnation, “A Different Species”
Motion Picture, Miniseries, or Pilot Made for Television
James Friend, BSC for Patrick Melrose, “Bad News”
Mathias Herndl, AAC for Genius: Picasso, “Chapter 1”
Florian Hoffmeister, BSC for The Terror, “Go for “Broke”
M. David Mullen, ASC for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Pilot)
Brendan Steacy, CSC for Alias Grace, “Part 1”
