By Cinematography is what gives film its most unique visual qualities. We often talk about film in terms of characters, plot, setting and writing but what really separates film as a medium is cinematography. The way things are shot, aligned or framed can have a distinctive impact on how our brain chews up a particular scene. With that in mind, this award is dedicated to those few shots from 2012 that will linger with us for the rest of our lives.
This was an incredibly hard puzzle to even begin with, given the absolute slew of cinematographic quality over the last year. Personally I found a lot of great films missing from the ultimate Flixist Fabulous Five, but the winner is ultimately more deserving than any other recipient in these awards in my opinion…
Roger Deakins has been around for a very, very long time. He’s shot everything from No Country for Old Men to Jarhead to A Beautiful Mind and so many other fantastically visual films. In my opinion the Academy Awards have for so long snubbed this absolute master and the most blasphemous decision they made this year was not giving Deakins the Cinematography award for Skyfall. We here at Flixist however saw Deakins’ work on Skyfall and knew exactly the quality that we received. The framing of the shots from Shanghai to Scotland were all done in utterly perfectly clever and beautiful ways. Deakins not only makes Skyfall a treat for the eyes, but a treat for the brain as well. Full Review
We here at Flixist still took a good loving towards Moonrise Kingdom, which came second overall in our votes. The Master came third, a film the Flixist crew all adore. Chronicle and Pi actually came in joint fourth place themselves and with Skyfall on the table it’s easy to see that, quite frankly, all five of these films were exceptional with their cinematography but only Skyfall had a master at the helm.
Claudio Miranda – Life of Pi
Matthew Jensen – Chronicle
Robert Yeoman – Moonrise Kingdom
Mihai Malaimare Jr. – The Master