American Society of Cinematographers Nominees Proves Just How Bad of a Movie Year It Was

This has got to be the worst batch of American Society of Cinematographers nominees ever. It’s as if the medium took a step back, regressing, this past year at least, based on the following five ASC nominees

Announced on their facebook livestream:

Newton Thomas Sigel (Cherry)
Erik Messerschmidt (Mank)
Joshua James Richards (Nomadland)
Dariusz Wolski (News of the World)
Phedon Papamichael (The Trial of the Chicago 7)

In a nutshell: Papamichael’s TV movie cinematography, Wolski’s gorgeously bland western badlands, Richards’ explicit ripoff of Lubeszki/Malick, Messerschmidt’s digitized black and white, and Sigel’s ambitious work.

Actually, “Cherry” for ASC is among the most surprising guild nominations I can remember. It’s grandiose stuff. Sigel is overdue for an Oscar nomination, so maybe this will be it. There is a huge overlap with the AMPAS cinematographers branch, and if I remember correctly, it’s the largest overlap between a guild and an AMPAS branch.

You also have some noteworthy directors praising Sigel’s work — Sean Baker and Rod Lurie both went to Twitter to support Sigel’s work.

Obviously, if the ASC had any semblance of tastes, putting political and mainstream voting on the backburner for a change, then they would have nominated Christian Blauvelt’s exquisite frontier pastels in “First Cow,” and Shabier Kirchner’s swirling camerawork in “Lovers Rock.”