Christian Berger’s stark black and white monochrome work on Michael Haneke’s twice Oscar-nominated The White Ribbon has deservedly taken the three cinematography prizes at the Los Angeles Film Critics, New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics awards. Now its got the guild on its side. Coming up trumps against presumed frontrunner Avatar and hot threat The Hurt Locker, Ribbon would seem to be a plausible threat to take out the win, if Avatar’s gigantic visuals weren’t so inescapably visceral and immersive.
The Ribbon victory may suggest Avatar’s win in that category at the Oscars is far from assured. Locker and Inglourious Basterds are still the more aggressive contenders to keep an eye out for though. I’m not sure enough people saw (or even admired enough) The White Ribbon to put it at number 1 for cinematography. With the entire Academy membership voting, the eye-candiest visuals tend to win here, namely anything Avatar or Basterds in appearance. But Locker’s dominance and Ribbon’s esteem should not be underestimated. I’m calling it right now for Avatar, with The Hurt Locker as alternate.
Meanwhile, Locker continues its dominance throughout the precursor season with another triumph, this time at the Cinema Audio Society awards where it won for best sound mixing of the year. Again fending off Avatar, The Hurt Locker would look to be a strong bet for Sound Mixing, while Avatar looks set to snatch the Sound Editing prize.
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