The American Society of Cinematographers announced their 5 nominees for the best cinematography of 2015 and here they are:

Bridge of Spies – Janusz Kaminski
Carol – Edward Lachman
Mad Max: Fury Road – John Seale
The Revenant – Emmanuel Lubezki
Sicario – Roger Deakins

This is Roger Deakins’s 14th ASC nomiantion!  If Sicario scores a best picture nomination, I wouldn’t be surprised if Deakins finally picks up an Oscar as a result.

Though a lot of critics don’t want to admit it (for obvious reasons), the guild awards are actually a far better Oscar precursor than the critic awards.  If you want to know what films are popular with the people who actually make movies, look to the guild awards.

And looking at the guild awards so far, it really does appear that there are quite a few films that have wide industry support.  Interestingly enough, both Sicario and Straight Outta Compton have been making something of a comeback with the guild awards.  (Even though Compton was not nominated by ASC, it has been recognized by the PGA, WGA, and SAG.)  As well, Bridge of Spies and Trumbo have both received more guild support than either has gotten from the critics.

For that matter, both Mad Max: Fury Road and The Big Short have received more guild support than Spotlight.  I know that Sasha Stone and Jeff Wells have pretty much declared Spotlight to be unbeatable but who knows?  Things could still get interesting.

(Correction: Over on Gold Derby, Sasha Stone is now predicting victory for The Big Short.)