The American Society of Cinematographers named One Battle After Another lenser Michael Bauman the winner of its marquee Theatrical Feature Film prize at its 40th anniversary ASC Awards on Sunday at the Beverly Hilton.
Bauman won in a category that included Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Sinners), Darius Khondji (Marty Supreme), Dan Laustsen (Frankenstein) and Adolpho Veloso (Train Dreams). The same quintet is nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar next weekend.
The ASC’s Theatrical Feature Film winner has gone on to claim the Best Cinematography Oscar nearly half of the time — 18 times in its 39 years — though not last year. Maria‘s Edward Lachman at won the ASC last March, but Lol Crawley took the Academy Award for The Brutalist.
Bauman was nominated twice this year — his first-ever ASC noms — with the other coming in the limited/anthology/TV movie race for his work on an episode of Monster: The Ed Gein Story.
The ASCs celebrate the year’s best in cinematography in seven categories spanning feature films, TV, documentaries and music videos.
Earlier in the night, the Episode of a One-Hour Regular Series category ended up in a rare tie, with Christophe Nuyens (for the Andor episode “I Have Friends Everywhere”) and Alex Disenhof (for the Task episode “Crossings”) both winning.
Also in the TV categories, Adam Newport-Berra won the Episode of a Half-Hour Series race for Emmy winner The Studio (for the episode “The Oner”), and Pete Konczal won the limited/anthology/TV movie prize for the Black Rabbit episode “Isle of Joy.”
Mstyslav Chernov and Alex Babenko won the Documentary Award for 2000 Meters from Andriivka, with Chernov accepting the honor and saying Babenko remains in Kyiv working. Four-time Oscar nominee and seven-time ASC Award nominee Rodrigo Prieto won the music video category for shooting Taylor Swift’s “The Fate of Ophelia.”
Among the honorary awards tonight, Frankenstein filmmaker and two-time Oscar winner Guillermo del Toro received the ASC’s Board of Governors Award. Del Toro, who hoofed it over from receiving an award at the Saturn Awards earlier in the night in Universal City, accepted the honor, which is given to collaborators who champion directors of photography and elevate the visual craft at the heart of cinema.
Additional honorees tonight included Wes Anderson regular Robert Yeoman receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award; M. David Mullen the Career Achievement in Television Award; Cynthia Pusheck the Presidents Award; and Stephen Pizzello, editor-in-chief of American Cinematographer, the ASC Award of Distinction.
Below is this year’s winner’s list.
Theatrical Feature Film
Michael Bauman, One Battle After Another
Episode of a One-Hour Regular Series (tie)
Christophe Nuyens, Andor (“I Have Friends Everywhere”)
Alex Disenhof, Task (“Crossings”)
Limited or Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Pete Konczal, Black Rabbit (“Isle of Joy”)
ASC Music Video Award
Rodrigo Prieto, “The Fate of Ophelia” (Performed by Taylor Swift)
Spotlight Award
Mátyás Erdély, Orphan
Documentary Award
Mstyslav Chernov and Alex Babenko, 2000 Meters from Andriivka
Episode of a Half-Hour Series
Adam Newport-Berra, The Studio (“The Oner”)