The American Society of Cinematographers, the most prestigious awards body of its kind, announced the nominated for the 39th ASC Awards. This year, they’ve decided to have seven nominees.
Jarin Blaschke (“Nosferatu”)
Alice Brooks (“Wicked”)
Lol Crawley (“The Brutalist”)
Stéphane Fontaine (“Conclave”)
Greig Fraser (“Dune: Part Two”)
Edward Lachman (“Maria”)
Phedon Papamichael (“A Complete Unknown”)
Not a bad one in the bunch,; a big boost for Lachman, and Papamichael as they were both outside the top 7 on Gold Derby— maybe an Oscar nomination can happen for them now. Lachman is one of the greats, having already been Oscar-nominated three times— for 2002’s “Far From Heaven” 2015’s “Carol,” and 2023’s “El Conde.”
The biggest omission from today’s nominees list has go to be Jomo Fray (“Nickel Boys”) — that film is being shut out of a lot of precursors, including earlier today with the DGA. The other notable ASC snub was Paul Guilhaume (“Emilia Perez”).
I’m absolutely baffled by Alice Brooks’ nomination for “Wicked.” She really tried her damnest to make “Wicked” look as un-cinematic as possible. The night scenes were underlit, and the daytime sequences overlit, and yet still looking grayish. It was odd lensing. The color correction was blasphemous.