Latest in Cinematography

The American Society of Cinematographers has responded to Wednesday’s explanation letter from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences about the Oscars plan to award four categories during the Oscarcast’s commercial breaks, terming it “unsatisfying and oddly inaccurate.” Cinematography is among the categories…

UPDATED, 10:05 AM Thursday with more names added to open letter: The list of industry names who have signed on to an open letter to the Academy asking it to reverse its decision to change the way some categories are presented at the Oscars is growing. Roma‘s Alfonso Cuarón, George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Kerry…

IATSE president Matt Loeb has joined the chorus of complaints about the upcoming Oscar telecast, demanding that the Academy "reverse course" and reinstate cinematographers, editors and makeup artists and hairstylists to the full Oscar program. Last week, the Academy announced that the Oscars for those three categories…

The American Society of Cinematographers is not happy that this year's Oscar for Best Cinematography will be presented during a commercial break, even though the winner’s speech will be taped and aired later in the broadcast. "After receiving many comments on this matter from ASC members, I think I speak for many of…

As part of the Academy’s efforts to streamline this year’s Oscarcast and keep it to three hours, it confirmed today that throphies in four categories will be presented during commercial breaks. As Deadline’s Pete Hammond reported last week, Best Cinematography will be one of the categories whose presentation will be…

National Geographic revealed more natural history global series and specials at Sunday’s TCA gathering in Pasadena. Headlining was the announced return of last summer's highly successful Yellowstone Live, which is now set for a June 2019 premiere. The other projects in the works: America, in which a new generation of…

Veteran cinematographer Caleb Deschanel last week scored his sixth Oscar nomination, for his work on Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Never Look Away, one of the three Foreign Language nominees that crossed into other key categories this year. Deschanel, a respected DP who has surprisingly never won the Academy…

The American Society of Cinematographers has revealed the film and TV nominees for its 33rd annual ASC Awards, set for February 9 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. The marquee Theatrical Release prize certainly is an international contest, with the five nominees all hailing from different countries…

With Ryan Coogler's Marvel phenomenon Black Panther, cinematographer Rachel Morrison embarked on her first blockbuster, running toward the challenge of balancing intimacy with scope. "The legacy of these [superhero] films is usually scope and spectacle, but rarely do you get a sense of humanity and intimacy in these…

Between Barry Jenkins' two latest features—the Oscar-winning Moonlight, and 2019 contender If Beale Street Could Talk—cinematographer James Laxton has taken two big swings, adapting pre-existing written material for the screen. In the case of the former film, the material at hand was a play, Tarell Alvin McCraney's In…

On Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate, cinematographer Benoît Delhomme came to a powerful realization, that will forever impact the way he approaches his craft: "Sometimes, something you don't control can be better." Accustomed to a certain way of working—to the notion that cinema is ruled by laws, which shouldn't…

On Cold War, which marked his second collaboration with Pawel Pawlikowski, cinematographer Lukasz Zal built on his rapport with the Polish director to find an exciting new way of working. In his first-go round with the director, on 2013's Ida, Zal earned his first Oscar nomination, which resulted from a strange twist…