We've been reporting a lot lately about awards nominations from various movie industry guilds, and with the Directors Guild nominees already out there, we're pretty much done with the guilds that accurately predict Best Picture nominees. But that doesn't mean it's not fun to pore over the picks by the American Society of Cinematographers, who picked their nominees for their annual Oustanding Achievement Awards, and of course, selected some of the most gorgeous films to be released in theaters in the last year. Here is the list nominees, via Indiewire:


If you're looking for surprises, check out the presence of Cronenweth, whose work on Dragon Tattoo was undeniably accomplished but also represented a film that wasn't really part of the awards conversation-- until, of course, David Fincher got his own nomination from the Directors Guild and the movie suddenly had heat again. And it's very strange not to see Janusz Kaminski in this list for his gorgeous, old-school work on War Horse. For all the movie's flaws, it's impeccably shot, and its absence here could be a bad sign for how the movie will fare when Oscar nominations are announced on January 24.

But as usual when it comes to cinematography prizes, there's not a bad pick in the bunch, and though I can't imagine how you could pit Emmanuel Lubezki's luminous work in The Tree of Life with Hoyte van Hoytema's washed-out visuals in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, I guess that's what makes the cinematographers the experts, not me.