We're about 18 hours until Oscar nominations time, but even after the DGAs yesterday and the BAFTAs at stupid o'clock this morning, there's still time for one more precursor to sneak in under the wire, and this time, it's the American Society of Cinematographers, the major equivalent to a guild award (although it's not a guild, or a union) for the directors of photography of the movie world.
And their five picks? An exact match up for BAFTA, with Seamus McGarvey for "Anna Karenina," Danny Cohen for "Les Miserables," Claudio Miranda for "Life of Pi," Janusz Kaminski for "Lincoln" and Roger Deakins for "Skyfall." Is that likely to be the line up for tomorrow's Oscar nods? The ASC and the Academy don't always match up, but they have gone five for five twice in the last five years, and only missed one nominee the other three yeras. If anyone's vulnerable, it's Cohen; look for Greig Fraser, Robert Richardson or Mihai Milamaire Jr to step in for "Zero Dark Thirty," "Django Unchained" or "The Master" if he does fall out.
This marks Deakins' eleventh ASC nomination (he's won twice, for "The Shawshank Redemption" and 'The Man Who Wasn't There," but has never taken an Oscar), and Kaminski's fifth, though interestingly he's never won. Cohen, Miranda and McGarvey all have one previous nomination too (for "The King's Speech," "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" and "Atonement," respectively). As such, it'll be interesting to see how they turn out when the award is given out on February 10th.
I was hoping for Mihai Milamaire Jr or Greig Fraser to be on that list. Bummer.
As much as I don't want to admit it, I will say I don't want Roger Deakins first and possibly only Oscar to be for Skyfall. Theres so much better work he's done in the past and for much better films at that.
Les Mis? The movie that looked like it was shot on a GoPro? You gotta be fucking kidding me. Not to mention Life of Pi, the flat looking movie that pulls all it's wonder out of it's CGI.