Well now here is a shocker, not because his work wasn’t commendable, but because I pretty much thought Roger Deakins (True Grit) had this one in the bag. The American Society of Cinematographers held the 25th annual American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards tonight and Inception director of photography Wally Pfister took home top honors beating out the likes of Deakins, Matthew Libatique (Black Swan), Danny Cohen (The King’s Speech) and Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network).
Pfister’s nomination for Inception with the ASC was his third from the group after being nominated for both The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, but this was his first win. He is also nominated for an Oscar for his work on Inception and has been nominated three times prior, all for films with director Christopher Nolan including The Dark Knight, The Prestige and Batman Begins, but he didn’t win the Oscar for any of them.
Pfister will face off against all four men again at the Oscars and faces a formidable foe in Deakins, a nine time Oscar nominee who’s lost the eight times prior and many believe (myself included) his work on True Grit is going to be the one to end the streak. However, is it now possible Pfister may pull off the upset?
Before you answer that question, just know that in the 24 years the ASC has been handing out this award only nine times has it matched up with the Academy. So while I am sure Inception fans are excited tonight don’t get ahead of yourselves. Last year it was Christian Berger (The White Ribbon) winning with the ASC while Mauro Fiore won the Oscar for Avatar.
Additionally, Deakins was awarded the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award from Joel Coen tonight. While accepting the award Deakins was quoted saying, “I’m not about to retire. I love cinematography as much as I ever have.”
For those of you keeping score, I have already updated the Oscar Overture with Pfister’s win and the next group we can look forward to handing out their honors is the American Cinema Editors on February 19th. Stay tuned.
