For our nineteenth Rundown article, we shine a bright light on our Cinematography predictions. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Cinematography as well as general commentary about the race. Wednesday, we’ll cover the writing awards.

Best Cinematography

Winner Predictions

• Dune (WL O) (TB O) (TL O)
• Nightmare Alley
• The Power of the Dog (PP O)
• The Tragedy of Macbeth
• West Side Story

Runner-Up Predictions

• Dune (PP O)
• Nightmare Alley (TL O)
• The Power of the Dog (WL O) (TB O)

(color and symbol key at bottom of page)

Wesley Lovell: With the ASC creating a decisive lane for Dune to claim this award, there’s not much to say about it. Sure, The Tragedy of Macbeth and The Power of the Dog have their adherents, but I doubt they can overcome that massive technical achievement.
Peter J. Patrick: The Power of the Dog and Dune seem neck-and-neck on this one, but Power could make history by being the first win for a woman in this category.
Tripp Burton: Somehow, this category seems both straight-forward and tricky at the same time. Dune would seem to be an easy frontrunner, with the ASC and BAFTA wins, but if The Power of the Dog is really a Best Picture frontrunner, it needs to win something other than Director, and this would seem to be the most obvious place for that to happen. I’m sticking with the precursor favorite, but this could be a ballot buster for a lot of Oscar pools.
Thomas La Tourrette: This is a strong category, and all five nominees deserve to be here. Cases could be made for any of them winning, though I do not think that Nightmare Alley or West Side Story will stand much of a chance. Probably The Tragedy of Macbeth will not really be a factor, though the Academy often does like black-and-white films. That leaves The Power of the Dog and Dune. The Power of the Dog has the second most precursors and boasts sweeping vistas and it did recently win the Critics Choice Award. It might seem a likely winner except that it is up against Dune which does have more precursors and won both the BAFTA and the guild awards. I think it will be close, but Dune should edge out the win.

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