Black and white made a comeback on Sunday when the American Society of Cinematographers announced its 35th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards winners. The honours celebrate excellence in the feature film, documentary and television cinematography categories. In the former of those, Erik Messerschmidt took home the Theatrical Release trophy for his B&W artistry on Mank.
The Crown and The Mandalorian came up big among the event’s TV winners, for One-Hour Television Series – Non-Commercial and Half-Hour Series for Television, respectively.
The Mandalorian
The awards represent the organization’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past 14 months.
The Society bestowed the ASC Board of Governors Award to filmmaker Sofia Coppola for her contributions to cinema through her body of work. It is the only ASC Award not given to a cinematographer and is reserved for industry stalwarts who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form. The Oscar winner appreciated the tribute saying, “It’s the coolest award that I’ve ever gotten.”
The Michael Chapman & Allen Daviau Student Heritage Award is being awarded to Ai Chung for A Young Tough in the Michael Chapman Graduate Category and Elias Ginsberg for Milk Teeth in the Allen Daviau Undergraduate Category.
The Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award will be given to Melanie Grams for Driven
The virtual ceremony was held the historic ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood. Appropriate to the afternoon’s big winner, longtime host Ben Mankiewicz — Herman Mankiewicz’s grandson — was back, adding a few TCM-ish jokes to the proceedings.
Below is the full list of winners:
THEATRICAL RELEASE
Erik Messerschmidt ASC for Mank
Mank
MOTION PICTURE, MINISERIES, OF PILOT MADE FOR TELEVISION
Steven Meizler for The Queen’s Gambit “End Game”
SPOTLIGHT AWARD
Aurélien Marra for Two Of Us
Two Of Us
EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR TELEVISION SERIES – NON-COMMERCIAL
Fabian Wagner ASC BSC for The Crown “Imbroglio”
EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR TELEVISION SERIES – COMMERCIAL
Jon Joffin ASC for Motherland: Fort Salem “Up is Down”
DOCUMENTARY
Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for The Truffle Hunters
EPISODE OF A HALF-HOUR SERIES FOR TELEVISION
Baz Idoine for The Mandalorian “Chapter 13: The Jedi”
