Monday, July 27, 2009

Roger Deakins + Coen Brothers = Oscar Nom for Deakins 44% of the Time

Roger Deakins has been nominated for Eight Oscars for Best Cinematography, and never won the prize.

He consistently is associated with some of the best projects film has to offer, and does beautiful work.

In July 2007 I did a post suggesting that 2007 might be Roger Deakins year to win an Oscar with three prestige projects including No Country For Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James, and In The Valley of Elah - the first two listed received nods, but Deakins lost out to Robert Elswit's work from There Will Be Blood.

2008 looked promising for Deakin with three prestige projects again...The Reader, Revolutionary Road, and Doubt. Deakins was nominated for The Reader, but lost out to Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire.

What about 2009? Well of the Coen Brother's 13 movies Deakins has been the director of photography for 9 of their 13 projects. He has also received nominations for four of those 9 films.

Of course, Deakins has never won an Oscar, so these films are included, but he has a respectable batting average directing films for the Coen brothers.

So that batting average is only going to be better of worse as Roger Deakins directs two Coen Brother films for 2009.

One film, Hail Caeser, hasn't even gone into production, so perhaps it's not worth talking about, but the second film A Serious Man.

A Serious Man tells the story of a professor who's marriage is falling apart because his brother (Richard Kind) won't move out of the house.

I think Deakins has a chance for this nod, but it won't be his winning baby...so 2009 could definitely raise or lower Deakins percentage with Joel & Ethan, but I must say, I don't think Deakins is going to win the award this year. Serious Man would have to be very well respected for that to happen.

Roger, maybe soon, maybe soon.

2 comments:

Jordan M. Poss said...

Great post. Deakins is one of my favorite cinematographers. Pixar actually consulted him on how to make WALL-E look more like it was shot on film with anamorphic lenses. Looking through his filmography, it's amazing to see all the beautifully-shot projects he's worked on... none of which have gotten recognition for his work.

Emma said...

He deserves one - his work on Shawshank was stunning. Ah, memories.