The Academy Awards are anon and the nominees have been announced. Well, for the categories that most folks are interested in, that is. Other than cinematography, I really don't pay much attention to them. I will say, however, that I don't understand how Little Miss Sunshine got nominated for Best Picture. While fun, it was a pretty basic assemblage of clichés. And so on to the cinematographers who were nominated.
Vilmos Zsigmond for The Black Dahlia
Emmanuel Lubezki for Children of Men
Dick Pope for The Illusionist
Guillermo Navarro for Pan's Labyrinth
Wally Pfister for The Prestige
I've seen all of these films excepting The Black Dahlia and I thought the cinematography in each was fantastic. It's a tough call but I’m kind of rooting for Lubezki for his long takes in Children of Men. While the 9 or 10 minute scene in the refugee camp may have been digitally stitched together, it doesn't matter. It and the scene in the van (which apparently wasn't stitched) were brilliant. It's the stylistic choice that counts, not necessarily the technical way it was accomplished. I just get a hard-on for long takes. I don't know what originally attracted me to them, but I've grown to love them as an antidote to the waaaaaaaaay overused MTV style of constantly cutting every 2 seconds. After seeing Children of Men, I got this sudden urge to watch Red Psalm again.
In addition to Best Cinematographer, the Scientific and Technical Awards interest me. The winner have been announced already and these folks get a small ceremony couple weeks before the big event that folks watch on TV. A lot of these awards are for SFX tools but there's also a few for wireless control of remote lens systems. That means the guys named above can place cameras where no camera operator can go and still have the focus pulled precisely for some great shots. It makes me wonder what the opening of Touch of Evil would be like if Welles were making it today. Perhaps it's time for me to rent Writing With Light as it's been a while.
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