Award Central News

Because of Deakins' double nomination, he faces off against only three other d.p.s: Robert Elswit ("There Will Be Blood"), Janusz Kaminski ("The Diving Bell and the Butterfly") and Seamus McGarvey ("Atonement").

Owen Roizman, who oversees the Academy's cinematographer branch as executive committee chair, notes the significance of the Oscar nominees aligning with those of the American Society of Cinematographers for only the second time in the ASC's 22 years of handing out its own awards. "It shows that cinematographers all over the world have finally gotten the proper taste to be able to see who's doing the best work, and that we all agree," says the five-time Oscar-nominated d.p., who is best known for his groundbreaking work on "The French Connection."

Roizman, holding court at the annual pre-ASC award dinner last month at the organization's clubhouse in Hollywood, stops short of proclaiming this new level of sophistication might translate into who takes home the Oscar. The ASC's 298 voting members might be viewed as more closely mirroring the 195 tastemakers of the Acad's cinematography branch, which determines the nominations, rather than the 6,500-plus overall Acad members who eventually vote on the winners.

"The final vote isn't necessarily the best indication in any category," explains Roizman. "That's why people say just getting the nomination is the most important thing. And I took that as good medicine, since I never won."

At this point, Elswit, who would win the ASC award the following night, chimes in: "How did Owen Roizman never win? How did Gordon Willis never win? I mean. Come on! It's like an embarrassment to all of us."

The last time the Acad and ASC lined up perfectly, in 1996, John Seale won both awards for "The English Patient," the film with which "Atonement" has been most often compared. Perhaps the biggest difference between 1996 and this year is that the consensus among those gathered at the clubhouse is that any one of the nominees is deserving of an award, with one proviso. "Most of the (other) disciplines who vote," explains Roizman of the Academy, "they're not voting for Roger Deakins, they're voting for the movie." And yet most cinematographers will claim that a film's look should not be distinguished from its overall achievement as a collective artistic statement, which doesn't necessarily sharpen the picture for prognosticators looking to make any predictions.

As Elswit said as he accepted his ASC award from the podium at Hollywood & Highland's Grand Ballroom, the overall high level of achievement was hard to overlook: "It's impossible to pick these films apart from one another." Perhaps that's one thing everyone can agree on.