February 28, 2010

The American Society of Cinematographers honors The White Ribbon with its top prize!

This is definitely a surprise, as the race was thought to have been between Avatar and The Hurt Locker, though to be fair The White Ribbon has a lot of supporters. The Cinematography category at the Oscars might have just gotten more interesting...
-Thoughts?

12 comments:

  1. The cinematographers' guild often offers some interesting choices, but I still bet it's still between Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree. I think Barry Ackroyd is "due" in their eyes, so The Hurt Locker is likely to win, but if The White Ribbon siphons enough votes away, Avatar might win. But that's just me...

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're probably right, but I would LOVE to see The White Ribbon pull off an upset at the Oscars. To much "pretty" work gets honored, it would be nice if stark cinematography wins once in a while.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I honestly see "Avatar" as the winner at this point, even though I don't even think the cinematography should be eligible. No matter what anyone's opinion of the film may be, they always come out of it saying it was a fantastic visual experience, and the most obvious (but in this case, incorrect) award for that is cinematography. Not to mention that I don't think that "The Hurt Locker" is going to sweep up both film editing and this award come next week.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Robert...this is a good year for "stark", since The Hurt Locker or The White Ribbon would aptly fill that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Joshua, the vibe I heard from the ceremony last night seemed to suggest that enough people might not be embracing the "new" way with Avatar. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if it won either.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yea, I wouldn't be wholly surprised if "The Hurt Locker" ended up picking it up, but I think that "Avatar" has a better shot at the award at this point.

    Personally, I'd pick "Watchmen" to win the award this year, and I kind of find it sad that it's not a contender for any kinds of technical awards, let alone prestige awards.

    ReplyDelete
  8. The trick is that 'cinematography' is so often seen purely as shot placement and lighting is at the back of minds. But the lighting within White Ribbon is quite spectacular with it's use of candles and lamps which might be what helped push it forward with cinematographers. It does seem highly unlikely it would win the Oscar though. But hey it did get a nomination where it very easily could have missed for bigger films. So who knows?!

    ReplyDelete
  9. This is very true. It's one of the more interesting races in my opinion, short of Best Picture, Director, Actress, and Original Screenplay.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think is this is one of the most interesting races this year, and possibly the one with the most snubs. Think of the cinematography for Antichrist (which was simply amazing, regardless of your opinion of the overall film), Roger Deakins work in A Serious Man, the brilliant angles and lighting in A Single Man or the subtle, thought-provoking camera work in Moon. Not to mention the more obvious choices like "Nine." I would hate to see Avatar win this award, and, frankly, would also be dissappointed if this award were given to the Hurt Locker. Not that work in Bigelow's film is bad - far from it - but, given the work in Hanecke's film - which, interestingly, was filmed in color and then drained of color (imagine trying to light for that!)- and, surprisingly, the quite artistic and splendid work in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the Hurt Locker would be quite a disappointment for me in this category.

    ReplyDelete