Awards ceremonies…it's easy to lose track of them all at this time of year. We had the BAFTAs this weekend, and the music industry also celebrated their biggest bash with the Grammys taking place on Sunday, but there's another important award that has been handed out that shouldn't be ignored before we shift our focus to the Oscars shortly.
While Guillaume Schiffman ("The Artist") was taking home the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography, the American Society of Cinematographers were busy awarding someone who BAFTA had failed to even nominate — Emmanuel Lubezki won the award for outstanding cinematography in a feature film for his work on Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life." In the 26-year history of the award only 10 of the recipients have gone on to convert that success into Oscar glory, although three of the last four winners have (including Wally Pfister last year).
Lubezki is the current front-runner in the Oscar race, and this is his fifth nomination (the others were for "Children of Men," "The New World," "Sleepy Hollow," and "A Little Princess") but he is yet to have a win to his name. The celebrated lenser is up against Schiffman ("The Artist"), Jeff Cronenweth ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"), Robert Richardson ("Hugo") and Janusz Kaminski ("War Horse") at the Academy Awards.
At the moment that battle looks like a three horse race between Lubezki, Schiffman and Richardson, although the ASC award certainly cements Lubezki's status as favourite. We'll find out who takes home this gong (and we'd like it to be either Lubezki or Richardson), as well as all the others, on Sunday February 26th.
