AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 14th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. I’m drawing only from films that were either released or playing at a film festival in the 2020 calendar year. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Mank
Charm City Kings
Dear Comrades
The 40-Year-Old Version
Tenet

The winner:
Nomadland (Joshua James Richards) tapped into the perspective of its main character, capturing the beauty around her and conveying it beautifully to the camera.

Other nominees:
News of the World (Dariusz Wolski)
I Carry You with Me (Juan Pablo Ramírez)
The Killing of Two Lovers (Oscar Ignacio Jimenez)
Wendy (Sturla Brandth Grøvlen)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 13th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Joker, Portrait of a Lady on Fire

The winner:
1917 was a completely visceral experience, one that demanded the fierce attention of the viewer because of its camera’s sharp and unyielding focus.

Other nominees:
Ms. Purple
A Hidden Life
The Beach Bum
The Last Black Man in San Francisco

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 12th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
The Rider, First Man, The Old Man and the Gun, Breath, If Beale Street Could Talk, Widows, A Boy. A Girl. A Dream., Mid90s

The winner:
American Animals (Ole Bratt Birkeland) lensed a dark story within a comedic frame, entirely focused on the events at hand with sharp camerawork and a purposeful eye.

Other nominees:
Cold War (Lukasz Zal)
Disobedience (Danny Cohen)
Roma (Alfonso Cuaron)
The Favourite (Robbie Ryan)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 11th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Call Me By Your Name, Darkest Hour, In Between, Ingrid Goes West, Land of Mine, Logan, Mudbound, Song to Song, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sweet Virginia, The Space Between Us, Thoroughbreds, Walking Out, Wonderstruck

The winner:
Blade Runner 2049 (Roger Deakins) presented a dark but beautiful vision of a bleak future, so incredibly captured that its lensing drove its story and the way in which its characters – both human and artificial – interacted.

Other nominees:
The Florida Project (Alexis Zabe)
The Shape of Water (Dan Laustsen)
Dunkirk (Hoyte Van Hoytema)
Battle of the Sexes (Linus Sandgren)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 10th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
20th Century Women, Arrival, Embrace of the Serpent, In a Valley of Violence, Julieta, Moonlight, Sully, The Birth of a Nation, The Light Between Oceans

The winner:
American Honey (Robbie Ryan) made simple moments and backdrops look and feel incredibly poignant, contributing tremendously to the aesthetic of the film and its protagonist’s journey.

Other nominees:
La La Land (Linus Sandgren)
Hell or High Water (Giles Nuttgens)
Pelé: Birth of a Legend (Matthew Libatique)
Lion (Greig Fraser)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 9th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
99 Homes, Beasts of No Nation, Bridgend, Brooklyn, Clouds of Sils Maria , James White, Joy, Mad Max: Fury Road, Man from Reno, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Misunderstood, Room, Sicario, Son of Saul, Spotlight, Tangerines, The Danish Girl, The Hateful Eight, The Martian, The Revenant, Z for Zachariah

The winner:
’71 (Tat Radcliffe) stranded its protagonist in a terrifying unknown landscape, and the camera followed him with such furious intensity that it became an integral part of telling the story.

Other nominees:
The Revenant (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Carol (Edward Lachman)
Steve Jobs (Alwin H. Küchler)
Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Jeanne Lapoirie)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 8th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 156 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Blind, Boyhood, Hellion, Interstellar, Selma, Snowpiercer, The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, The Double, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything , Unbroken, Wild, Young Ones

The winner:
A Most Violent Year (Bradford Young) was stark, iconic, and emblematic of a time made more distant by the lens of the camera.

Other nominees:
Cold in July (Ryan Samul)
Calvary (Larry Smith)
Birdman (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Enemy (Nicolas Bolduc)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 7th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 100 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Aftermath, Blancanieves, Blue is the Warmest Color, Captain Phillips , Fast and Furious 6, Fill the Void, Fruitvale Station, Gravity, The Iceman, Mud, No, Star Trek Into Darkness, 12 Years a Slave

The winner:
Rush (Anthony Dod Mantle) was sleek, stylized, and an utterly beautiful picture of car racing.

Other nominees:
The Great Gatsby (Simon Duggan)
The Look of Love (Hubert Taczanowski)
Her (Hoyte Van Hoytema)
Kill Your Darlings (Reed Morano)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 6th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 95 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Amour, Argo, The Avengers, The Black Tulip, Compliance, The Dark Knight Rises, Detachment, Flight, Footnote, Headhunters, The Impossible, Life of Pi, Perfect Sense, Prometheus, La Rafle, Rust and Bone, Skyfall, We Have a Pope

The winner:
Moonrise Kingdom (Robert D. Yeoman) filmed its story in a mesmerizing, eye-popping manner that enhanced its story with a wonderful, picaresque setting.

Other nominees:
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Ben Richardson)
The Master (Mihai Malamaire)
Anna Karenina (Seamus McGarvey)
Zero Dark Thirty (Greig Frasier)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 5th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 138 Films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
Hugo
Beginners
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Tree of Life
Melancholia
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The winner:
In a Better World (Morten Soborg) was visually magnetic and derived much of its emotional impact from its stunning lensing.

Other nominees:
The Artist (Guillaume Schiffman)
Drive (Newton Thomas Sigel)
Take Shelter (Adam Stone)
Shame (Sean Bobbitt)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 4th Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I’ve ranked them. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Honorable mentions (in alphabetical order):
Animal Kingdom, The Eclipse, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, The Girl Who Played with Fire, Red Riding: 1974, Red Riding: 1980, Red Riding: 1983, The Secret in their Eyes, Shutter Island, The Social Network

Runners-up:
THE KILLER INSIDE ME
127 HOURS
A PROPHET

The winner:
Inception (Wally Pfister) offered a whole new take on reality, and nowhere was that more clear than in the way its shots were framed and presented.

Other nominees:
Somewhere (Harris Savides)
I Am Love (Yorick Le Saux)
Micmacs (Tetsuo Negata)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Eric Kress)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 3rd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in the order I've ranked them and drawn from a pool of approximately 92 films. Click here to see previous years of this category.

Runners-up:
BROKEN EMBRACES
THE HURT LOCKER
THE WHITE RIBBON

The winner:
A Single Man (Eduard Grau) gleaned incredible meaning out of the most careful and astonishing of shots and camerawork.

Other nominees:
Avatar (Mauro Fiore & Vince Pace)
Watchmen (Larry Fong)
A Serious Man (Roger Deakins)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)

AFT Awards: Best Cinematography

This is the seventh category of the 2nd Annual AFT Film Awards to be announced. The AFT Awards are my own personal choices for the best in film of each year and the best in television of each season. The AFT Film Awards include the traditional Oscar categories and a number of additional specific honors. Nominees are pictured in alphabetical order.

Runners-up:
CHANGELING
RACHEL GETTING MARRIED
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD

The winner:
My Blueberry Nights (Darius Khondji) was overwhelmingly intoxicating and it dazzling camerawork catches you in its sway even if the film’s plot can’t.

Other nominees:
The Band’s Visit (Shai Goldman)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Claudio Miranda)
Slumdog Millionaire (Anthony Dod Mantle)
Synecdoche, New York (Frederick Elmes)