2024 Oscars Best Cinematography overview: Five lush films, four with black-and-white as key component

This year there are four films in the Oscars Best Cinematography lineup that have significant portions in black and white, though only two black and white films this century have won this award (“Roma” and “Mank”). All five DPs in this category have previously been nominated at least once before, and all five were also nominated by the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), but we’re guaranteed to have a first-time Oscar winner this year. Note that it’s been 10 years since the winner in this category also won Best Picture: that was three-in-a-row Oscar winner Emmanuel Lubezki‘s work on Alejandro González Iñárritu‘s “Birdman.”

“El Conde”
Edward Lachman

Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín is no stranger to the Oscars, having directed four movies that were put up by his home country for Best International Feature — only 2012’s “No” was nominated — as well as directing Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart to Oscar nominations for “Jackie” and “Spencer,” respectively. Larraín’s black-and-white political vampire movie didn’t get Chile’s backing, but its cinematography by three-time Oscar nominee Ed Lachman –who was previously nominated for his work filming Todd Haynes‘s “Far from Heaven” and “Carol” — did get the backing of the motion picture academy, showing that the cinematography branch is still impressed whenever DPs work sans color.

“Killers of the Flower Moon”
Rodrigo Prieto

The single nominated film that doesn’t include black-and-white cinematography is the latest from Martin Scorsese, which has received critical acclaim as well as five below-the-line nominations, only missing out on Best Sound and Best Makeup and Hairstyling. Mexican cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is on his fourth Oscar nomination, following Scorsese’s “The Irishman” and “Silence” plus Ang Lee‘s “Brokeback Mountain.” Capturing the vast landscape of the Osage Nation and all of the horrors they face at the hands of characters played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro has made this a favorite of many branches of the academy.

“Maestro”
Matthew Libatique

Having received just two previous Oscar nominations, the first for Darren Aronofsky‘s “Black Swan” and the second for Bradley Cooper‘s debut film as a director, “A Star is Born,” Libatique is considered relatively new-school even though, like three of his fellow nominees, he’s in his mid-50s. It’s true that Cooper’s “Maestro” has a number of early sections in black-and-white, but Libatique received this nomination just as much for his astounding camera movement, including an early sequence where the camera follows Cooper’s Leonard Bernstein all the way from his apartment down to Carnegie Hall.

“Oppenheimer”
Hoyte van Hoytema

This Dutch-Swedish cinematographer has shot four of Christopher Nolan‘s films going back to “Interstellar,” and this year he received his second Oscar nomination, the first being for Nolan’s 2018 film “Dunkirk.” The movie cuts effortlessly between black-and-white and color, and both sections look fantastic, including some of the expansive IMAX-worthy shots of the Los Alamos, New Mexico, plains where the atomic bomb is first developed and then tested.

“Poor Things”
Robbie Ryan

Ryan received one of the 11 nominations for Yorgos Lanthimos‘s absurdist period piece, having previously been nominated for the Greek filmmaker’s previous film, “The Favourite.” Sure, this Emma Stone-starrer also included a good portion in black-and-white, but the entire film looks gorgeous as one of three nominees here also contending for Best Production Design this year. Ryan also used a lot of old-school techniques, such as fish-eye lenses, to follow Lanthimos’s directive to make “Poor Things” in a similar fashion to films from back in the 1930s.

It seems that Van Hoytema is the likeliest to win for his beautiful work shooting “Oppenheimer,” which showed a mastery with the camera and lighting that helped it become Nolan’s best-looking film to date.

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