For our sixth Rundown article, we take a look through the lens at life. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Cinematography as well as general commentary about the race. Thursday, we’ll cover a category that the vast majority of Academy members will have to read to watch.

Best Cinematography

Winner Predictions

• Arrival
• La La Land (WL O) (PP O) (TB O) (TL O)
• Lion
• Moonlight
• Silence

Runner-Up Predictions

• Arrival (PP R) [New]
• Lion (WL R) [New] (TB R) [New]
• Silence (TL O)

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Wesley Lovell: The Saturday win of Lion at the American Society of Cinematographers awards might throw a wrench into this category. While La La Land is still poised for a sweep, there’s no guarantee that it will wint his category now. Still, it seems unlikely the Academy would change course for Lion, though it’s now running second for the award, pushing the less obvious work of Moonlight into third.
Peter J. Patrick: I think this is one of the categories in which the runaway front-runner, La La Land, should win easily. Arrival, Moonlight, and Silence are all possible upset winners.
Tripp Burton: The ASC Award for Lion this weekend could seem to throw a wrench in the predictions here, and could be a stumbling block for La La Land. It seemed to be the first time the film had faltered at an awards show in weeks. The truth is, though, that before the recent Lubezki three-peat, the ASC and the Oscars had differed quite a bit in this award, with the Academy usually moving past the ASC’s choice and going with a film they were wilder about in general. La La Land should still be safe here, especially if it is poised to go on a sweep that it looks likely to, but don’t count this as solidly sure as some of its other awards.
Thomas La Tourrette: The camerawork of La La Land is romantic and dreamy, much like the movie itself. From the massive song and dance number on a freeway ramp to more intimate scenes of characters dancing against the sunset or through the stars, it showed a depth and difficulty of filming that the Academy will have to honor. It won the most precursors with Moonlight coming in a distant second in the tally. However if something were to somehow beat La La Land I would think it would be Rodrigo Prieto’s work through the fog and mist of Japan in Silence. He did create some glorious imagery. In another year he might stand a chance of winning, but La La Land will easily win here.

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