What's the best cinematography in history that WASN'T nominated for an Oscar?

[AJ Young]

An oscar nomination and/or win is ubiquitous with some of the best cinematography in history. However, there's been influential cinematography that was never nominated such as McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

 

So, what's the best cinematography in history that wasn't nominated for an Oscar?

 

I'd like to pitch:

• Creed
• Ocean's 11 (Soderbergh version)
• Barton Fink

Edited April 16, 2020 by AJ Young
Typos

[Max Field]

Crank 2 High Voltage

[David Mullen ASC]

"Blade Runner" -- which won the BAFTA!

And "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II".

[Robin R Probyn]

Anything Gordon Willis shot 

[Aapo Lettinen]

I think anything shot in the Soviet Union would apply to this category as well

[Phil Jackson]

In Addition to the the aforementioned:

 

2001: A Space Odyssey (G. Unsworth) (hard to believe)

Interstellar (H. Van Hoytema) (this is absolutely crazy)

Minority Report (J. Kaminski)

The Fall (C. Watkinson) (seriously how are Tarsem's movies never recognized)

Bringing Out The Dead (R. Richardson)

Heat (D. Spinotti)

Seven (D. Khondi)

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (H. Van Hoytema)

Ad Astra (H. Van Hoytema)

Her (H. Van Hoytema)

Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi (S. Yedlin) (the production design really compliments the photography here)

Rogue One (G. Fraser) (one of the first large format digital films)

A Single Man (E. Grau) (Tom Ford's criminally underrated debut)

Alien (D. Vanlint)

Kill Bill Vol 1 (R. Richardson)

Training Day (M. Fiore) (one of the best portrayals of LA I've ever seen on film)

Munich (J. Kaminski) (Spielberg+zooms!)

The Matrix (B. Pope) (come on -- bullet time was revolutionary)

Traffic (S. Soderbergh)

Eyes Wide Shut (L. Smith)

The Cell (P. Laufer) (the music industry's go-to DP really shines with Tarsem)

The Age of Innocence (Michael Ballhaus)

A Beautiful Mind (R. Deakins) 

Revolutionary Road (R. Deakins) 

Hail! Caesar (R. Deakins)

The Last of the Mohicans (D. Spinotti)

Far and Away (M. Solomon)

The Black Dahlia (V. Zsigmond)

Midnight Cowboy (A. Holender)

Easy Rider (Lazlo Kovacs)

 

 

Honorable Mentions

Prometheus (D. Wolski) (this is a very, very good looking movie. As is Alien: Covenant and The Martian)

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (B. Delbonnel)

Foxcatcher (G. Fraser)

AI: Artificial Intelligence (J. Kaminski) (A very meh film with great visuals)

A Serious Man (R. Deakins)

Doubt (R. Deakins)

Gone Girl (J. Cronenweth) 

Casino Royale (P. Meheux)

Star Trek: Generations (J. Alonzo) (probably the best looking non-JJ  movie but a terrible plot) 

Quantum of Solace (R. Schafer) (Bond movies are gorgeous but never win anything besides Original Song)

The Hunt For Red October (J. De Bont) (speaking of a director who literally fell off the map after being so big in the 90s)

[David Mullen ASC]

Don't forget the infamous story of "The Red Shoes", not nominated. Jack Cardiff had won an Oscar the year before for "Black Narcissus" and the cinematographers branch of the Academy blocked his nomination for "The Red Shoes" because, as one of them told Cardiff, they knew if he got nominated, he would win. The year "Black Narcissus" won for Best Color Cinematography, the award for Best B&W Cinematography went to Guy Green for "Great Expectations", both British, which I guess some Hollywood cinematographers found embarrassing.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Personally I think "Superman: The Movie" should have been nominated.

[AJ Young]

@David Mullen ASC I never knew that about Cardiff on The Red Shoes!

I'll throw some curve ball cinematography, animation:

• Wall*E
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• Ghost in the Shell
• April and the Extraordinary World
• The Lego Movie

[Phil Jackson]

I should point out that Cinematography is one of the few categories where the you get head scratching moments of movies that should've been nominated but weren't, however its usually hard to argue with the five films that actually get Best Cinematography nods, and sometimes hard to argue with the winner. As I went through the list I first found myself indignant (like "how did Richardson not win for The Hateful Eight?", but then realized The Revenant did and its like "oh okay, nevermind." That being said Hugo is a good movie and artfully done -- its freakin' Robert Richardson -- but it beat The Tree of Life? Really? Avatar (which is more visual effects than cinematography) beat both Inglourious Basterds (for which Richardson probably should've won) and Bruno Delbonnel's work on Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince? This kind of thing doesn't happen often with cinematography but when it does it makes you shake your head. 

It is much, much worse in other categories however. The Original Score category is particularly problematic. It seems almost outrageous when you think about it that John Williams hasn't won an Oscar since Schindler's List in 1994 when you consider the films he's scored since then like the Harry Potter films or six Star Wars movies, in addition to all his work with Spielberg since 94 (he literally lost to Brokeback Mountain -- a movie with almost no score!). Thomas Newman, who has never won and Hans Zimmer are similar stories (the Newman family is cursed at awards shows). It's almost like if you are a popular composer you get punished at the Oscars. Williams has 50+ nominations and five wins none of which are recent. That might be the worst win/loss ratio ever. 45 times Williams has shown up for the ceremony and gone home with nothing (I'm sure he wipes his tears with dollar bills but still). Music tends to reward up and comers and newbies. The Social Network score is good, no doubt, but I don't know that its better than Inception, which it beat back in 2011. 

Visual Effects is another category that gets weird winners. Somehow Babe beat Independence Day in 1996 and Apollo 13 wasn't even nominated! I never understood the Academy's tradition of letting all the members vote on the winners not just the specialists because then it becomes a popularity contest. If cinematographers nominate cinematographers, then cinematographers should be able to decide the winner. That's doubly true for a technical category like Visual Effects or Sound Effects Editing. Like what the hell does Meryl Streep know about raytracing engines? I can see opening up categories like screenplay or acting or directing to everyone. Certainly Best Picture. But you can get some weird winners otherwise.

 

Edited April 17, 2020 by Phil Jackson

[Phil Jackson]

42 minutes ago, AJ Young said:

@David Mullen ASC I never knew that about Cardiff on The Red Shoes!

I'll throw some curve ball cinematography, animation:

• Wall*E
• Atlantis: The Lost Empire
• Ghost in the Shell
• April and the Extraordinary World
• The Lego Movie

Don't forget about Rango which Deakins consulted on. 

[Michael LaVoie]

I was gonna suggest The 3 color trilogy from Kieslowski.  Blue, White, Red.   But Piotr was actually nominated for Red. 

[Shawn Sagady]

On 4/16/2020 at 7:04 PM, David Mullen ASC said:

"Blade Runner" -- which won the BAFTA!

And "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II".

I’m shocked at that list of snubs. Especially blade runner. 

[Shawn Sagady]

15 hours ago, Phil Jackson said:

I should point out that Cinematography is one of the few categories where the you get head scratching moments of movies that should've been nominated but weren't, however its usually hard to argue with the five films that actually get Best Cinematography nods, and sometimes hard to argue with the winner. As I went through the list I first found myself indignant (like "how did Richardson not win for The Hateful Eight?", but then realized The Revenant did and its like "oh okay, nevermind." That being said Hugo is a good movie and artfully done -- its freakin' Robert Richardson -- but it beat The Tree of Life? Really? Avatar (which is more visual effects than cinematography) beat both Inglourious Basterds (for which Richardson probably should've won) and Bruno Delbonnel's work on Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince? This kind of thing doesn't happen often with cinematography but when it does it makes you shake your head. 

It is much, much worse in other categories however. The Original Score category is particularly problematic. It seems almost outrageous when you think about it that John Williams hasn't won an Oscar since Schindler's List in 1994 when you consider the films he's scored since then like the Harry Potter films or six Star Wars movies, in addition to all his work with Spielberg since 94 (he literally lost to Brokeback Mountain -- a movie with almost no score!). Thomas Newman, who has never won and Hans Zimmer are similar stories (the Newman family is cursed at awards shows). It's almost like if you are a popular composer you get punished at the Oscars. Williams has 50+ nominations and five wins none of which are recent. That might be the worst win/loss ratio ever. 45 times Williams has shown up for the ceremony and gone home with nothing (I'm sure he wipes his tears with dollar bills but still). Music tends to reward up and comers and newbies. The Social Network score is good, no doubt, but I don't know that its better than Inception, which it beat back in 2011. 

Visual Effects is another category that gets weird winners. Somehow Babe beat Independence Day in 1996 and Apollo 13 wasn't even nominated! I never understood the Academy's tradition of letting all the members vote on the winners not just the specialists because then it becomes a popularity contest. If cinematographers nominate cinematographers, then cinematographers should be able to decide the winner. That's doubly true for a technical category like Visual Effects or Sound Effects Editing. Like what the hell does Meryl Streep know about raytracing engines? I can see opening up categories like screenplay or acting or directing to everyone. Certainly Best Picture. But you can get some weird winners otherwise.

 

It’s interesting what you bring up. There is a definite bias for awards that tend to favor a certain movie and I think this is due to the collaboration that is inherent in film making. 
 

while subjectively film A may have better cinematography than film B. If film B also had the best actor, best sound, best costume design etc it is going to alter people’s perceptions and possibly subconsciously pull up the perceived quality.  Especially when it comes to voting months after you saw the film you are likely to remember the better overall films cinematography over the objectively more deserving film.  
 

ive been nominated and won some awards in the live theater world and this seems to hold true across to film as well.

[Robin R Probyn]

34 minutes ago, Shawn Sagady said:

It’s interesting what you bring up. There is a definite bias for awards that tend to favor a certain movie and I think this is due to the collaboration that is inherent in film making. 
 

while subjectively film A may have better cinematography than film B. If film B also had the best actor, best sound, best costume design etc it is going to alter people’s perceptions and possibly subconsciously pull up the perceived quality.  Especially when it comes to voting months after you saw the film you are likely to remember the better overall films cinematography over the objectively more deserving film.  
 

ive been nominated and won some awards in the live theater world and this seems to hold true across to film as well.

But there again many best film gong winners have also won for audio/ set design / but not cinematography..?  I think its often seen as a consolation award , as still a fairly major award ..for a film  where its not really deserved .. thats missed out on the other big awards ..

[David Mullen ASC]

Keep in mind that Oscar nominations for Cinematography only come from cinematographers in their branch of AMPAS, but the winner is picked by the membership at large, which is more weighted towards actors (not sure how short film animators came to be such a large group...)

[Phil Jackson]

1 hour ago, David Mullen ASC said:

Keep in mind that Oscar nominations for Cinematography only come from cinematographers in their branch of AMPAS, but the winner is picked by the membership at large, which is more weighted towards actors (not sure how short film animators came to be such a large group...)

This was exactly the point I was trying to make. With cinematography, actors routinely interact with DPs and basically understand what a DP does so the end results are often not so bad. But I really am not comfortable with actors deciding who wins Sound, Editing or Visual Effects categories. I could see opening up all categories to say Directors or Producers but having everything weight so heavily toward actors who can occasionally be the least knowledgeable people on the set in terms of the process seems bizarre. That being said it would be hard to shut actors out because many of them moonlight as producers, directors, etc. Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are fairly knowledgeable as is Tom Hanks so its a real dilemma. 

Edited April 18, 2020 by Phil Jackson

[Robin R Probyn]

Exactly .. the number of  nominations carries more prestige than the gong itself ..  with other cinematographers anyway.. 

[Justin Hayward]

On 4/18/2020 at 11:31 AM, David Mullen ASC said:

(not sure how short film animators came to be such a large group...)

It’s a pseudonym for “studio shareholders.“?