Roger Deakins Thinks ‘The Batman’ Should Have Received The Cinematography Oscar & Blames The Academy’s “Snobbery”

For many people, if they are asked who the greatest living cinematographer is in all of film, the name that immediately comes to mind would likely be Roger Deakins. He’s been nominated for 15 Oscars (winning two) and is responsible for the camera work in a number of iconic films. So, when Deakins is asked about his thoughts on the current state of cinematography in relation to the Oscars, this is a guy who knows a thing or two about what he’s talking about. And Deakins doesn’t think the Academy gets it right with its nominations because the Academy refuses to acknowledge superhero films and modern blockbusters.

Speaking at a recent event (via Deadline), Roger Deakins believes that this year’s crop of Oscar nominees in the cinematography category miss the mark. In fact, he thinks the film with the best cinematography in 2022 was left out of the running completely.

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“The best cinematography hasn’t been nominated,” he explained. “It’s ‘The Batman.’ That’s the best work in my view.”

He added, “The reason it wasn’t is pure and simple: snobbery. There’s this unfair tendency to avoid the Marvel universe and the other popular universes. It comes down to the work. Good work is good work whatever the genre.”

When it was released last year, there were many critics priaising the cinematography of “The Batman,” which was courtesy of Greig Fraser. Of course, when you mention Fraser and the lack of nomination for blockbuster films like “The Batman,” it’s important to note the cinematographer won the award last year for his work on “Dune: Part One,” which kinda blows up Deakins’ point just a bit. 

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That said, when you look at the crop of 2023 nominees, the highest-grossing film to earn a cinematography nom is “Elvis.” Outside of that film, you had “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Tar,” “Empire of Light” (which Deakins was nominated for), and “Bardo.” Those are definitely not the biggest films of the year, by any stretch. You could argue that “The Batman” deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as those films, for sure. 

Alas, the Oscars are gonna Oscar. Typically, Marvel films and features such as “The Batman” are relegated to tech categories and rarely achieve anything more than that. But maybe Deakins will want to take on a Marvel film himself and see if he can break through the Academy’s “snobbery” himself? 

You can watch the Oscars award presentation for Best Cinematography below: