Christian Berger, AAC, Alar Kivilo, ASC, CSC and Eagle Egilsson claimed top honors in the three competitive categories at the 24th annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration last night at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.
Berger won the feature film category for The White Ribbon, besting a field of nominees which also consisted of Barry Ackroyd, BSC for The Hurt Locker, Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS for Nine, Mauro Fiore, ASC for Avatar and Robert Richardson, ASC for Inglourious Basterds.
The ASC Award nominees mirror those for the upcoming cinematography Oscar®, except for one DP. Beebe is not up for the Academy Award® next Sunday. Instead Bruno Delbonnel has an Oscar® nom on the strength of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
TV honors
Taking the ASC Award in the episodic television category was Egilsson for the “Venice Kings” episode of the TNT series Dark Blue.
Kivilo was the recipient of the television movie/miniseries award for the HBO telefilm Taking Chance, which marked the directorial debut of producer Ross Katz. (On the basis of Taking Chance, Katz earned inclusion into SHOOT‘s 2009 New Directors Showcase.)
Special awards
The ASC Lifetime Achievement Award was bestowed upon Caleb Deschanel, ASC, by his daughters, actresses Zooey and Emily Deschanel.
Caleb Deschanel’s artistry spans short and long form. He earned Best Cinematography Oscar® nominations for The Right Stuff in 1984, The Natural in ’85, Fly Away Home in ’97, The Patriot in ’01, and The Passion of the Christ in ’05. His body of work also includes such memorable films as The Black Stallion, Being There, The Spiderwick Chronicles and My Sister’s Keeper. Deschanel has also earned an array of credits as a director of motion pictures, TV programs and commercials.
On the latter front, Deschanel co-founded spot production house Dark Light Pictures in ’93 with executive producer Vincent Arcaro. Deschanel continues as a director/cameraman on the commercialmaking roster of the Hollywood-based Dark Light.
Meanwhile the ASC International Award was presented to Chris Menges, ASC, BSC by actor Tim Roth. And the Career Achievement in Television Award was presented to John C. Flinn III, ASC by Michael O’Shea, ASC. All three honorees made it clear that their best work is yet to come.
Tom Stern, ASC presented the Board of Governors Award to Morgan Freeman in recognition of the actor’s body of work and contributions to the art of filmmaking. Stern was behind the camera when Freeman earned an Oscar® for his performance in Million Dollar Baby and last year during the production of Invictus. Freeman collected his sixth Oscar nomination this year for his portrayal of Nelson Mandela.
The ASC Presidents Award was given to Sol Negrin, ASC by his son Michael Negrin, ASC, in recognition of his accomplishments as a cinematographer, and for his ongoing commitment to preparing the next generation for the future.
ASC also recognized the next generation of cinematographers with the presentation of the ASC Richard Moore Student Heritage Award to graduate student Benji Bakshi of the American Film Institute, and undergrad Garrett Shannon from Loyola Marymount University.
The ASC was founded during the dawn on the industry in 1919 for the purpose of advancing the evolving art and craft of filmmaking. There are more than 300 members today from countries around the world. ASC also has some 150 associate members from allied sectors of the motion picture and television industries.
Review: Director Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17” Starring Robert Pattinson
So you think YOUR job is bad?
Sorry if we seem to be lacking empathy here. But however crummy you think your 9-5 routine is, it'll never be as bad as Robert Pattinson's in Bong Joon Ho's "Mickey 17" — nor will any job, on Earth or any planet, approach this level of misery.
Mickey, you see, is an "Expendable," and by this we don't mean he's a cast member in yet another sequel to Sylvester Stallone's tired band of mercenaries ("Expend17ables"?). No, even worse! He's literally expendable, in that his job description requires that he die, over and over, in the worst possible ways, only to be "reprinted" once again as the next Mickey.
And from here stems the good news, besides the excellent Pattinson, whom we hope got hazard pay, about Bong's hotly anticipated follow-up to "Parasite." There's creativity to spare, and much of it surrounds the ways he finds for his lead character to expire — again and again.
The bad news, besides, well, all the death, is that much of this film devolves into narrative chaos, bloat and excess. In so many ways, the always inventive Bong just doesn't know where to stop. It hardly seems a surprise that the sci-fi novel, by Edward Ashton, he's adapting here is called "Mickey7" — Bong decided to add 10 more Mickeys.
The first act, though, is crackling. We begin with Mickey lying alone at the bottom of a crevasse, having barely survived a fall. It is the year 2058, and he's part of a colonizing expedition from Earth to a far-off planet. He's surely about to die. In fact, the outcome is so expected that his friend Timo (Steven Yeun), staring down the crevasse, asks casually: "Haven't you died yet?"
How did Mickey get here? We flash back to Earth, where Mickey and Timo ran afoul of a villainous loan... Read More