For our twelfth Rundown article, we look at a category that people wrongly look at as the most visually stunning and should look at for its overall shot composition. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Cinematography as well as general commentary about the race. ///Next week, we’ll start off on Monday with a category Wednesday, we’ll cover the best feature of the year that isn’t live-action.

Best Cinematography

Winner Predictions

• Cold War
• The Favourite
• Never Look Away
• Roma (WL O) (PP R) [New] (TB O) (TL O)
• A Star Is Born

Runner-Up Predictions

• Cold War (WL O) (PP R) [New] (TB O) (TL O)

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Wesley Lovell: In spite of the bump in the road that was the American Society of Cinematographers award to Cold War, Roma is chugging along towards a historical victory as Alfonso Cuaron would be the first director to win an Oscar for cinematography. Cold War could be a spoiler, as could any of the other films, but this looks to be solidly in Roma‘s corner, especially after BAFTA.
Peter J. Patrick: This one hinges on whether voters want to give Alfonso Cuaron an Oscar for Roma or not, if not then the other foreign language black-and-white film, Cold War, stands at the ready.
Tripp Burton: Cold War was a surprise winner at the ASC this weekend, and that means that this could be a closer race than some of us were expecting. But ASC is voted on by only cinematographers, who are notoriously more dubious of director-cinematographer hyphenates, and here the award is voted on by the whole Academy. Roma’s battle was getting a nomination; it should still easily win here.
Thomas La Tourrette: Director Alfonso Cuaron did his own cinematography for Roma, and he looks to be a double winner in both categories. He just achieved that feat at the BAFTAs and he should repeat it at the Oscars. The super deep shots in a washed out black-and-white were interesting, though I never found them that memorable. However, he has won almost all of the precursor awards, though surprisingly not the guild’s one. I expect him to triumph easily for this. His strongest competition probably comes from another black-and-white film, the Polish Cold War. If not that, then The Favourite could sneak in, but I find that doubtful. Neither Never Look Away nor A Star Is Born will have any chance of winning. This is the first time that three foreign language films have been nominated for their cinematography, and it looks like one of them will win. Expect it to be Roma.

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