Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC, has earned his third career ASC Award for Feature Film Excellence, this time for Gravity, continuing the awards momentum for the film leading up to the Oscars. Lubezki’s win capped an ASC ceremony held this evening in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.
Thanking the cast and crew of Gravity, Lubezki in his acceptance remarks mentioned several artisans–director Alfonso Cuarón who a week earlier won the DGA Award for the movie, visual effects supervisor Tim Webber of Framestore, and supervising digital colorist Steve Scott. Gravity is nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and Visual Effects.
The ASC Award win breaks new ground. Gravity becomes the first 3D film to take the top ASC feature honor. And in a recent SHOOT interview (1/24), Lubezki observed that an ASC nomination marks a new dawn of sorts. “Gravity represented a big change for me as compared to everything I’ve done before,” the DP told SHOOT. “We’re used to capturing images on film and are just starting to capture images with digital cameras. Now, though, as the cinematographer works with the effects team, we’re often creating images rather than capturing them. We are creating images in computers, lighting in computers. Combining the virtual cinematography with the live action in the movie was very challenging. To have work in CG considered cinematography–where, for example, a cinematographer’s expertise in lighting extends to what’s created digitally–is part of the new era were entering.” He added that to have this recognized (at that time with a nomination, which has since become the ASC Award itself) by his peers means a lot.
In the same SHOOT interview, Lubezki said that integral to Gravity–for which the ARRI Alexa was deployed–was the collaborative relationship between him and Framestore’s Webber. “We created a great team, working on every single aspect together, exploring and deciding things together,” related Lubezki. “It’s like collaborating with a great gaffer or production designer. We had a great overall team where everyone had the same objectives and we all worked hard to figure out how to achieve those goals.”
Lubezki first won the ASC Award for Children of Men (2007) and five years later for The Tree of Life. He was also nominated in 2000 for Sleepy Hollow.
For his work on Gravity, Lubezki topped a field of ASC feature nominees which also consisted of: Barry Ackroyd, BSC, for Captain Phillips; Sean Bobbitt, BSC for 12 Years a Slave; Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC, for Prisoners; Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC, for Inside Llewyn Davis; Philippe Le Sourd for The Grandmaster; and Phedon Papamichael, ASC, for Nebraska.
On stage with the ASC Award in hand, Lubezki said it was a high honor to be part of this field of nominees. He noted that he was also honored to have the ASC Award presented to him by lauded cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, ASC, who won the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, won the ASC Award for Feature Film Excellence in 2010 for The Patriot, and was nominated for that same honor two other times (Fly Away Home, The Passion of the Christ). Deschanel is also a five-time Oscar nominee.
Additionally on the feature film front, the ASC introduced a new honor, the Spotlight Award which was created to recognize outstanding cinematography in features and documentaries typically screened at film festivals, internationally or in limited theatrical release. Winning the inaugural Spotlight Award were DPs Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski for the film Ida.
Television
The TV category ASC Award winners were: Blake McClure for TV Episodic Series (Half Hour) on the strength of Comedy Central’s Drunk History (“Detroit” episode); Jonathan Freeman, ASC, whose work on HBO’s Game of Thrones (“Valar Dohaeris” episode) scored for TV Episodic Series (One Hour); and Jeremy Benning, CSC, who took the TV Movie/Miniseries category for National Geographic Channel’s Killing Lincoln.
In his acceptance remarks, Benning thanked several collaborators on Killing Lincoln, including director Adrian Moat and executive producers Tony and Ridley Scott. Benning noted that this was the last film that the late Tony Scott produced. Benning is a first-time ASC Award winner and nominee.
McClure is also a first-time winner and nominee.
Meanwhile Freeman has now won four ASC Awards in his career. His wins were for Boardwalk Empire in 2011 and 2012, and Homeland Security in 2005. He also has to his credit nominations for Taken (2003), Strange Justice (2000) and Prince Street (1998).
Special honors
Dean Cundey, ASC (Apollo 13, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Halloween) received the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award.
