Precursor: 26th Am. Society of Cinematographers Awards (2011)

Emmanuel Lubezki has reason to be excited and to be fearful. His work on The Tree of Life was honored by the American Society of Cinematographers last night, yet it’s not even a guarantee of a win. In the last five years, only three winners have gone on to capture the Oscar. This is the second time a Terrence Malick film has won the award from the ASC. The last time, The Thin Red Line won the ASC prize, but lost the Oscar to Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Could the same thing happen this year? War Horse isn’t the Best Picture frontrunner like Ryan was, so Lubezki has hope. Yet, however much the Oscars love Malick’s photography (this is the fourth of his five films to be nominated in the category), the last time they gave one to one of his movies was in 1978 for Days of Heaven. Still, it would be a shock if the film didn’t win at this juncture, but The Artist juggernaut certainly could do it.

In addition to the nominees and/or winners listed below, this year, we’re giving you a quick background on each individual precursor including founding year, first awards year and a glimpse at how many predictions the group has gotten right in the last five years. This data can be found below.

As promised, I have posted the history of this particular guild on my website. You can find it by following this link: American Society of Cinematographers.