"Avatar," "Ribbon" Among ASC Nominees

A scene from Michael Haneke's "The White Ribbon." Image courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.

The nominations for the 24th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards were announced this afternoon, with "Avatar" again managing to make the cut in as it did with the WGA nominations earlier today. In the feature film category, the five nominated cinematographers are:

Barry Ackroyd, BSC for "The Hurt Locker"
Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS for "Nine"
Christian Berger, AAC for "The White Ribbon"
Mauro Fiore, ASC for "Avatar"
Robert Richardson, ASC for "Inglourious Basterds"

Among those that failed to make the cut were Greig Fraser for his work on "Bright Star," Andrew Lesnie for "The Lovely Bones," Roger Deakins for "A Serious Man," and Javier Aguirresarobe for "The Road."

"It is a daunting challenge for our members to narrow a very competitive field down to five films that represent the most artful cinematography we have seen during the past year," says ASC President Michael Goi, in a statement. "We believe these very different films have set the contemporary standard for compelling visual storytelling."

The winner will be announced during the ASC Awards celebration here at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel on February 27.

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SamWasson | January 15, 2010 8:11 AMReply

The White Ribbon! At his best, Haneke does his damage with the light, graceful touch of a seasoned psychopath, the kind that kills and kills and never gets caught. In The Piano Teacher (2002), for instance, easily his best movie, Haneke barely seems to lift a finger. But he doesn’t need to; the white hot hurt gushes from Isabelle Huppert’s every clench. In Cache (2005), his scalpel carves blood from even the most innocuous objects and situations. For the duration of the movie, a found VHS tape, containing nothing more alarming than continuous footage of a single house, becomes the most sinister object imaginable. In these films, Haneke at his best, the evil is always there, but you’ll never see it coming.