Roger Deakins wins Oscar for Blade Runner 2049

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Roger Deakins wins Oscar for Blade Runner 2049. I may add "finally". I wonder weather Mr. Deakins will be more happy or the Oscar selection committee.

14th time lucky. This might be a new record of highest number of nominations before getting the Oscar. May be someone can confirm. I am so so happy that the master has been accorded his due recognition.

Here is his full acceptance speach:
"Hey, thank you, thank you. I guess I better say something or else they'll give me a jet ski and I don't see myself on a jet ski somehow. I want to share this with my wife of 27 years, James. Whatever. I want to share it with Andrew, Broderick and Denis Villeneuve. You know, I — I really love my job. I've been doing it a long time, as you can see, but you know, one of the reasons I really love it is the people I work with, both in front of the camera and behind the camera. Some of my crew on Blade Runner I've been working with for over 30 years. And others — others I met for the first time in Budapest. And this is for every one of them. Every one of them, in fact, I got to say, it's for us, because it was a team, it was a really team effort. Thank you."

I would like to know which one of his prior nominations you like best.

 

[Mark K.]

So well deserved. And I'm stoked it wasn't for some token piece of work, but for one of the real highlights of an already stunning career.

Frankly, I don't think a weak option among his nominations. But I think the one that floored me the most when I saw it, was Prisoners. It's not one that people talk about a lot, but it's certainly one of my favourites.

 

[Sergio Perez]

I would say his James Bond film was gorgeous. Many Oscar worthy works, but a film is never only about the cinematography, even when the award supposedly should be only focused on that technical aspect of the film.

Anyway, long overdue, well deserved, and I hope this means even more greatness from Mr Deakins in the next couple of years. Hopefully this is the first of many!

 

[Marc Berger]

So happy to see him getting it finally!
He made such a lot of films who deserved it already.
Congratulations!

 

[jordan levy]

The Shawshank Redemption deserved it like 28 years ago? but well deserved last night as well.

 

[Timur Civan]

I think he deserved it for "No country for old men"

I don't think there is a better marriage of story and photography in the world.

 

[Hugh Scully]

My favorite in the terms Timur speaks to, marrying story and photography, is House of Sand and Fog. I’ve seen it so many times. I’m a huge fan.

 

[David Mullen ASC]

I think he deserved it for "No country for old men"

I don't think there is a better marriage of story and photography in the world.

See, I would have given it to "The Assassination of Jesse James" that year, hence probably why the vote was split... though "There Will Be Blood" was also a great work of cinematography.

I think I've probably re-watched "The Shawshank Redemption" more than any of the others, followed by "1984", "No Country for Old Men", "Assassination of Jesse James", and "Skyfall". I wish there was a blu-ray of "Mountains of the Moon" (1990) available...

 

[Tom S]

The difficult thing about great cinematography is that it goes unnoticed as the viewer becomes immersed in the story. I love the Shawshank Redemption and No Country for Old Men.

 

[Phil Holland]

I'm so very excited for Roger. It's incredibly well deserved and I'm much like David on this particular subject. Particularly for Shawshank Redemption, Skyfall, and No Country for Old Men. Remember, he was nominated against himself in 2008 for Assassination of Jesse James and No Country for Old Men, Robert Elswit ended up winning that year for There Will Be Blood. True Grit in 2010 was against some very strong competition in my mind, but it's also just a brilliant level of execution.

He's also been a great resource over the years and truly nice guy when I've sought out advice.

 

[paulherrin]

i haven't seen everything he's ever worked on but i would say that he seems to be especially gifted with visual language, obviously.

with or without nominations, awards, or any other thing, roger deakins is one of the greatest cinematographers of all time (in my humble opinion, which [again] should go without "saying"). lots of beautiful work.

i think his work speaks for itself and he's probably a really good guy who will continue to take on important and difficult projects with good teams.

i hope he will continue to be a good artistic influence and assist in some way with a potential continuation of the blade runner story, because it's a complicated work. personally, i think "2049" is better than the original (although i may not fully understand the significance of its release [born in 1989]) because it really seems to be about what it means to be human, to have feelings, to be alive, and attempting to understand what love truly is and is not. he's definitely not going to worship a little statue (unless he's being funny on purpose) or the people who nominated or awarded it, so if he wants to give a slice of recognition to everyone (with or without remembering everyone's names) who contributed towards the good work he's been able to accomplish then i'd say let roger accept the award however he sees fit without griping or complaining or backbiting or any other negative thing towards mostly good people and good works that some persons may or may not have been involved in.

just because we don't all today fully understand every implication or the mastery or near mastery of subjects, frames, narrative, analysis, and/or other artistic aspects of cinema doesn't mean such things won't be understood later, hopefully we can continue to work on preserving and protecting artistic works, intellectual property, and other information helpful for survival and aspects of life beyond "basic needs".

 

[Justen Nguyen]

It's nice to see Roger finally win one. I think to win with Bladerunner is perhaps even more historic given the positioning of the film as a sequel to cult classic. And this being perhaps Roger's most visually stunning piece to date. He definitely flexed some lighting muscle on this one!

 

[Marc Wielage]

ipersonally, i think "2049" is better than the original (although i may not fully understand the significance of its release [born in 1989]) because it really seems to be about what it means to be human, to have feelings, to be alive, and attempting to understand what love truly is and is not.

I think the point of the movie was that the robots actually had deeper emotions and feelings than the humans, and the humans were actually very uncaring and cold. Plus the added question of whether Dekkard was himself a replicant, but wasn't aware of it.

 

[paulherrin]

i think you're right on about the androids, they display a range of emotions in the film far beyond the other characters so as to actually be "more human", even the AI of joi, my favorite character. i didn't find the story to be intending disrespect towards women, on the whole i believe it just highlights the way men typically have been thinking about and treating them, and that's in order to help everyone better understand how to be better to women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYV5Uyk7Qr8

 

[Wendell Adkins]

I was so happy to see this. Roger is a wonderfully kind and creative man to work with.