March Madness of Movies: Best Cinematography Since 2010 — Round 1

These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.
In “Best Cinematography Since 2010,” 13 of the 16 matchups went to higher seeds, with upsets only coming from middle competitions. #5 seeds Sayombhu Mukdeeprom for Call Me by Your Name and Wally Pfister for Inception bested #4 seeds Luca Bigazzi for The Great Beauty and Rodrigo Prieto for Silence, respectively, while #6 seed Roger Deakins for Sicario beat out #3 seed Dick Pope for Mr. Turner; although Roger Deakins winning is never really an upset kind of story as he’s always such a strong contender. Mukdeeprom and Pfister have big competition ahead in #1 seed Hoyte van Hoytema for Her and #1 seed Andrew Droz Palermo for A Ghost Story, while Deakins will take on #2 seed van Hoytema for Dunkirk.
While Emmanuel Lubezki had four entries initially, he only has two remaining, for #3 seed Gravity and #2 seed The Tree of Life. He’ll have a very tough road ahead of him, facing #2 seed Linus Sandgren for La La Land and #3 seed John Seale for Mad Max: Fury Road.
Both Bradford Young and Hoyte van Hoytema had three entries to start. Young’s only remaining one is his #2 seed Arrival, which will take on #3 seed Roger Deakins for Skyfall. Deakins for Skyfall is what took out van Hoytema’s #6 seed cinematography for Interstellar.
Deakins is quite clearly the strongest on this list, even if he didn’t have the most entries to begin with. All three of his are still in competition, and his #1 seed Oscar-winning work for Blade Runner 2049 will test its strength against #4 seed Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis. The final matchup will be a powerhouse of spellbinding drama photography: #1 seed Mihai Malaimare Jr. for The Master vs. #4 seed James Laxton for Moonlight.
Stay tuned for the round 2 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, March 23!
Featured image via Lionsgate/Warner Bros.