Joey Magidson
We’re back at it! Continuing a tradition I’ve been keen on for years, I’m ranking the new crop of Academy Award winners. For nearly all of the Oscar categories, you’ll see me list the top 25 recipients of that prize. Sometimes, our newest winner will appear. Other times, they’ll be relegated to the Honorable Mention category. Who knows, maybe one or two won’t even make the cut? It’s a list series that I’ll do each and every single year, in the weeks after the ceremony concludes. So, while this is a fun way to think about the Oscars in the aftermath of the latest telecast, it’s also a beginning for another column here on the site. Of course, definitely show us your own lists as well, in the comments section below. We’re definitely keen to know what you think!
This week, I’m doing Best Cinematography. The newest winner, Mank, features some very strong work from Erik Messerschmidt, but with such a phenomenal category, does he/it even make the cut for the top 25? Everyone has a different type of cinematography, or cinematographer, that they love, so your mileage may vary here. For me, DP’s like Roger Deakins and Janusz Kaminski are at the top of the class, so their films are going to be well represented. Movie-wise, Schindler’s List takes top honors, but I think my ranking is, overall, pretty diverse, with some utter classics of cinema sharing space with very new flicks. Take a gander below and see…
Here are what I consider to be the 25 best winners of the Best Cinematography Oscar, to date:
25. Erik Messerschmidt – Mank
24. Daniel L. Fapp – West Side Story
23. Conrad Hall – Road to Perdition
22. Alfonso Cuaron – Roma
21. Sven Nykvist – Fanny and Alexander
20. Vittorio Storaro – Apocalypse Now
19. Burnett Guffey – Bonnie and Clyde
18. Russell Metty – Spartacus
17. Emmanuel Lubezki – Gravity
16. Boris Kaufman – On the Waterfront
15. Ernest Haller and Ray Rennahan – Gone with the Wind
14. Robert Krasker – The Third Man
13. Linus Sandgren – La La Land
12. Conrad Hall – American Beauty
11. Geoffrey Unsworth – Cabaret
10. Vilmos Zsigmond – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
9. Roger Deakins – Blade Runner 2049
8. Néstor Almendros – Days of Heaven
7. Robert Surtees – Ben-Hur
6. Guillermo Navarro – Pan’s Labyrinth
5. Janusz Kamiński – Saving Private Ryan
4. Freddie Young – Lawrence of Arabia
3. John Alcott – Barry Lyndon
2. Roger Deakins – 1917
1. Janusz Kamiński – Schindler’s List
Honorable Mention: Mauro Fiore (Avatar), Loyal Griggs (Shane), Jack Hildyard (The Bridge on the River Kwai), Anthony Dod Mantle (Slumdog Millionaire) and Freddie Young (Doctor Zhivago)
Stay tuned for another category later on this week or early next week!
Another great job with this. My for whatever it’s worth list is below.
1. Hustler, The
2. Bonnie and Clyde
3. Barry Lyndon
4. Apocalypse Now
5. Lawrence of Arabia
6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
7. The Third Man
8. Birdman
9. Schindler’s List
10. American Beauty
11. JFK
12. Days of Heaven
13. Road to Perdition
14. On the Waterfront
15. Saving Private Ryan
16. From Here to Eternity
17. Mank
18. Hud
19. There Will Be Blood
20. Doctor Zhivago
21. Revenant, The
22. Mississippi Burning
23. Inception
24. La La Land
25. A River Runs Through It
H/M’s – An American In Paris, Bound for Glory, Bridge on the River Kwai, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Defiant Ones, The, Glory, Gravity, Master and Commander, West Side Story and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf
Thanks! And real solid list on your end, too.
25. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
24. The Picture of Dorian Gray
23. American Beauty
22. Shane
21. Gandhi
20. La La Land
19. There Will Be Blood
18. Shanghai Express
17. Dances with Wolves
16. The Fellowship of the Ring
15. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
14. Gravity
13. Black Narcissus
12. Lawrence of Arabia
11. The Hustler
10. Rebecca
9. Schindler’s List
8. How Green Was My Valley
7. Roma
6. Life of Pi
5. Inception
4. The Diary of Anne Frank
3. Road to Perdition
2. The Third Man
1. Barry Lyndon
Well that was exceedingly not easy. Extremely pleased to see Barry Lyndon so high on the list, though. Good list.
Right? Hard category!
I am surprised that no one has mentioned The English Patient, John Seale’s work was fantastic in my opinion.
Hardly bad!
It was close to being an honorable mention for me. Was probably the next one or two. But had Fargo won as I believed Deakins should have it would have been top 10 and maybe top 5.
Totally fair.