Roger Deakins has been named the best cinematographer of 2017 for his work on “Blade Runner 2049,” the American Society of Cinematographers announced at the ASC Awards on Saturday night.
The honor marks Deakins’ fourth competitive ASC Award, in addition to one lifetime-achievement award from the group. Though he is widely acclaimed as the greatest living cinematographer and has been nominated for the Oscar 14 times, Deakins has never won an Academy Award.
The five ASC nominees in the theatrical category — Deakins, Bruno Delbonnel for “Darkest Hour,” Dan Laustsen for “The Shape of Water,” Hoyte van Hoytema for “Dunkirk” and Rachel Morrison for “Mudbound” — matched the five nominees for this year’s Academy Award for cinematography, with Morrison the first woman ever nominated for both awards.
But the win does not necessarily mean that Deakins is now an Oscar front runner. In the first 31 years of the ASC Awards, the theatrical winner went on to win the Oscar only 13 times, although three of those wins (“Gravity,” “Birdman” and “The Revenant,” all to Emmanuel Lubezki) were in the last four years.
More often than not, though, ASC members disagree with the Academy. That explains why Lubezki won two ASC Awards before he won his first Oscar, and why Deakins won his first three ASC Awards but then lost at the Oscars.
The ASC Spotlight Award, which goes to a foreign or indie film without wide distribution, was won by Mart Taniel for the black-and-white Estonian film “November.”
Television awards went to Adriano Goldman for the “Smoke and Mirrors” episode of “The Crown,” Mathias Herndl for the first episode of the Nat Geo miniseries “Genius” and Boris Mojsovski for the “Thief” episode of “12 Monkeys.”
The ceremony took place in the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland. Honorary awards were given to director Angelina Jolie, cinematographers Russell Carpenter, Alan Caso, Russell Boyd and Stephen Lighthill and Kino Flo Lighting Systems founder Frieder Hochheim.
The ASC Awards winners:
Theatrical Release: Roger Deakins, “Blade Runner 2049”
Spotlight Award: Mart Taniel, “November”
Motion Picture, Miniseries, or Pilot Made for Television: Mathias Herndl, “Genius,” “Chapter 1”
Episode of a Series for Non-Commercial Television: Adriano Goldman, “The Crown,” “Smoke and Mirrors”
Episode of a Series for Commercial Television: Boris Mojsovski, “12 Monkeys,” “Thief”
Lifetime Achievement Award: Russell Carpenter
Board of Governors Award: Angelina Jolie
Career Achievement in Television Award: Alan Caso
International Award: Russell Boyd
Presidents Award: Stephen Lighthill
Bud Stone Award of Distinction: Frieder Hochheim
Andrew Lesnie Heritage Award Winners:
Undergraduate: Logan Fulton, “Widow”
Graduate: Favienne Howsepian, “Snowplow”
Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award: Connor Ellmann, “Forever Home”