Nominations voting is from January 11–16, 2024, with official Oscar nominations introduced on January 23, 2024. Remaining voting is February 22–27, 2024. And at last, the 96th Oscars telecast might be broadcast on Sunday, March 10, and air reside on ABC at 8 p.m. ET/ 5 p.m. PT. We replace predictions all through awards season, so maintain checking IndieWire for all our 2024 Oscar picks.
“El Conde,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “Maestro,” “Oppenheimer,” and “Poor Issues” have been nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). They’re represented by cinematographers Ed Lachman, Rodrigo Prieto, Matthiew Libatique, Hoyte van Hoytema, and Robbie Ryan. The winner might be introduced throughout the thirty eighth Annual ASC Awards ceremony on March 3 on the Beverly Hilton, with the occasion live-streamed worldwide on theasc.com.
Whereas the ASC generally is a dependable Oscar barometer, the final time all 5 nominees aligned was 2017. The minor shock right here is Lachman (a two-time Oscar nominee for “Carol” and “Far From Heaven”) over “Saltburn’s” Linus Sandgren (Oscar winner for “La La Land”), “The Zone of Curiosity’s” Łukasz Żal (a two-time Oscar nominee for “Ida” and “Chilly Warfare”), or “Napoleon’s” Dariusz Wolski (Oscar-nominated for “Information of the World”).
Apparently, all however the digital “El Conde” have been shot on Kodak movie, whereas “Oppenheimer,” “Maestro,” and “Poor Issues” have been considerably shot in coloration and black-and-white. However even “Killers of the Flower Moon” boasts authentically simulated black-and-white newsreel footage of the Osage Nation (shot with Martin Scorsese’s 1917 Bell & Howell 2709 digicam and Kodak black-and-white Eastman Double-X 5222 movie inventory), and the monochromatic “El Conde” turns to breathtaking coloration for its closing sequence. This intermingling of coloration and black-and-white to assist drive the narrative with heightened states of thoughts is a part of an excellent stylistic custom and earned an Oscar for “JFK” cinematographer Robert Richardson. Thus, this hybrid issue appears to be like to play a key function on this Oscar race.
“Oppenheimer,” the Oscar favourite, represents the fruits of van Hoytema’s IMAX collaboration with Christopher Nolan. The duo achieves a brand new sort of intimate spectacle with this psychological thriller about physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), the “father of the atomic bomb.” The cinematographer makes use of the large-format IMAX digicam to discover the panorama of faces; specifically, Oppenheimer’s in coloration from his perspective and antagonist Admiral Lewis Strauss’ (Robert Downey Jr.) in black-and-white from his. A shout out to Kodak for engineering 65mm monochromatic movie for IMAX. Because of this, van Hoytema (Oscar-nominated for “Dunkirk”) redefines portraits and close-ups for 70mm IMAX presentation.
Yargos Lanthimos’ twisted “Frankenstein” gender-bender is a extra advanced feminist, coming-of-age exploration than “Barbie,” shot by go-to cinematographer Robbie Ryan (Oscar-nominated for “The Favorite”). Bella (Emma Stone), a distraught Victorian girl, commits suicide and is re-animated by iconoclastic scientist Dr. Baxter (Willem Dafoe) with the mind of her unborn little one. The primary a part of her rebirth is shot in expressionistic black-and-white, emphasizing the fish-eye lens to jarringly distort her feral perspective. Then she runs away on a collection of whirlwind adventures and sexploits with and with out slick and debauched lawyer Duncan (Mark Ruffalo). These are shot in coloration however particularly color-reversal Ektachrome 35mm movie. The usage of numerous textures, distinction, and coloration with completely different shares and lenses brilliantly conveys Bella’s daring transformation right into a sexually liberated and impartial girl manner forward of her time.
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Scorsese’s tragic historic crime drama, brings out the most effective in Prieto, who experiments with completely different photographic appears to be like for visible and emotional impression. It’s in regards to the serial murders of the Osage Indians after oil is found on their land in Twenties Oklahoma. Taking pictures in 35mm, the three-time nominee (“The Irishman,” “Silence,” “Brokeback Mountain”) captures the natural colours of the Osage tradition and the great thing about the panorama, the early Autochrome look of the ’20s for scenes involving characters of European descent, and excessive distinction, darkish, and gritty search for the reign of terror.
Bradley Cooper directs and stars on this sweeping exploration of legendary conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein by means of the lens of his sophisticated marriage to Chilean-American actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan). Spanning greater than 30 years, with Libatique (Oscar-nominated for “A Star Is Born”) taking pictures the primary half in black-and-white and the second half in coloration (largely all in 1.33). It’s a bittersweet love story in regards to the couple changing into soulmates and the way they later drift aside when Bernstein will get twisted up in contradictions revolving round musical superstardom and his hedonistic double-life with same-sex lovers.
Pablo Larraín’s “El Conde” envisions Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (Jaime Vadell) as a vampire searching for demise in a black comedy, finest described as “Nosferatu” meets “Succession.” Lachman makes use of the lighter large-format Alexa Mini LF Monochrome digicam (with Orson Welles’ most well-liked Extremely Baltar lenses) for an excellent expressionistic black-and-white look that melds the trendy with the classical.
“Saltburn,” Emerald Fennell’s black comedy in regards to the merciless class divide in England within the mid-2000s, hurls out-of-place Oxford pupil Barry Keoghan into the sprawling property of aristocrat Jacob Elordi and his eccentric household for summer time trip. Sandgren visually captures the institutional oppression of Oxford and the hallowed great thing about the Saltburn property as life-altering tipping factors for Keoghan (in 1.33 to boost the peeping tom facet).
Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Curiosity,” the disturbing Holocaust drama in regards to the home household bliss inside eyeshot of the Auschwitz camp, is shot with forensic precision by Żal as if we’re a fly on the wall. He’s aided by the director’s progressive 360-degree units, which had 10 cameras taking pictures on the similar time, hidden in furnishings or in partitions (and eliminated in submit).
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” shot by go-to cinematographer Wolski, explores the speedy rise to energy of Napoleon Bonaparte (Joaquin Phoenix) from navy chief to Emperor and his obsessive love for Joséphine (Vanessa Kirby). The visible spotlight is the recreation of six legendary battles (together with Austerlitz, the place the horses fall by means of the ice, and, after all, Waterloo) every with distinctive geometric patterns.
Potential nominees are listed in alphabetical order; no movie might be deemed a frontrunner till we’ve got seen it.
Frontrunners
Hoyte van Hoytema (“Oppenheimer”)
Ed Lachman (“El Conde”)
Matthiew Libatique (“Maestro”)
Rodrigo Prieto (“Killers of the Flower Moon”)
Robbie Ryan (“Poor Issues”)
Contenders
Linus Sandgren (“Saltburn”)
Dariusz Wolski (“Napoleon”)
Łukasz Żal (“The Zone of Curiosity”)
