33rd American Society of Cinematographers Awards Winners

On Saturday, February 9, in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at the Hollywood & Highland complex the society had their ceremony awards with a surprising win on their milestone 100th anniversary.

My major surprise is that Roma didn't win, but as mentioned when posting the nominees the other movie with outstanding cinematography was Cold War and yes, won the top award.  This award increases Cold War Oscars winning possibilities but by now we know which film won BAFTA cinematography, so Roma is still a strong contender.

Most interesting fact, this year the ASC honored European films as both film awards went to east Europe cinema countries, Poland and Georgia.  The Spotlight Award went to Giorgi Shvelidze for Namme.  Big congrats to always outstanding European cinema.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To check winners in all categories go official site here.

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1/8/19
While all industry press outlets where going crazy with the Golden Globes news, there were many guilds and industry groups announcing their nominations; that's why today is quite a busy day for me -lol- and news have not that much coverage as it's hard to compete with what A-list Hollywood celebrities are wearing (lol).

So here we go.  Yesterday the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) announced their nominations for the current edition of their annual awards and yes, as expected, the two magnificent black & white feature film dramas got a nomination!  Bravo!

This year's awards will not only honor the most artful cinematography of 2018 but will also celebrate the ASC's 100th anniversary. Congratulations for this remarkable milestone.

This is another tech category where Roma excels in the most unexpected manner as film is truly a poem, a visual poem and the most serendipitous situation -Chivo was busy- forced Cuarón to go back to handle the camera and gee, he did the most emotional unique visual poetry I have seen in quite a while (the last I recall is a Russian film).  Even multiple award winner Emmanuel Lubezki (Chivo), Cuaron's usual cinematographer, admits that only Alfonso Cuarón could do what he did and he's in awe of his long time collaborator.  Most of you recall that I'm very visual and go nuts with images, so no surprise when I say that my award goes to Cuarón and his outstanding cinematography in Roma.  Bravo!

But Roma is not alone among the nominees, another black and white film gives a different experience as plays with light in the most remarkable ways.  Images perhaps not as emotions generator as Rome but Cold War cinematography is a tour de force in chiaroscuro with gorgeous framing and very dramatic contrast of black and white -there are not many greys in this film- that blows minds and absolutely complements the exquisite music and story development.  Bravo!

This is a year when this category looks here -and probably could look the same at the Oscars- very foreign-language as true contenders are not in the English-language nor have big Hollywood stars and still are moving those elusive English-language audiences even if they have to read subtitles (lol).

As previously announced, this year’s honorees include Robert Richardson, ASC (Lifetime Achievement Award) and Jeffrey Jur, ASC (Career Achievement in Television Award).

These are the Nominees

Theatrical Release
Alfonso Cuarón for Roma
Matthew Libatique for A Star is Born
Robbie Ryan for The Favourite
Linus Sandgren for First Man
*Łukasz Żal for Cold War


From left, are nominees Alfonso Cuarón, Robbie Ryan, Matthew Libatique, Łukasz Żal and Linus Sandgren.

Spotlight Award
Joshua James Richards for The Rider
*Giorgi Shvelidze for Namme
Frank van den Eeden for Girl 

To check all the nominees, including TV categories, go official site here.  Awards ceremony will be on February 9 in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.