March Madness of Movies: Best Cinematography Since 2010 — Round 2
These matchups were vote on by the MovieMinis Staff.
Round 2 was a blood bath — not necessarily because of upsets, but because each matchup pitted such strong contenders against each other regardless of seeds.
But there were some fascinating results. While Roger Deakins went into round 2 holding on to all three of his entries, two of them got knocked out this time around. #2 seed Bradford Young for Arrival took down #3 seed Deakins for Skyfall, and #2 seed Hoyte van Hoytema for Dunkirk took down #6 seed Deakins for Sicario.
Young will compete against the powerhouse of #1 seed Mihai Malaimare Jr. for The Master, who beat #4 seed James Laxton for Moonlight. van Hoytema will face fellow Christopher Nolan cinematographer, #4 seed Wally Pfister for Inception, who (perhaps unsurprisingly, due to the popularity factor) upset #1 seed Andrew Droz Palermo for A Ghost Story.
In fact, van Hoytema remains as the most prominent competitor with two entries. His #1 seed work on Her worked by #5 seed Sayombhu Mukdeeprom for Call Me by Your Name. van Hoytema will battle #2 seed Linus Sandgren, who just squeezed by #3 seed Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity after a tie-breaking vote.
The final matchup features the last remaining entries of two of the strongest initial contenders: #1 seed Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049 vs. #2 seed Emmanuel Lubezki for The Tree of Life.
Breaking down the remaining contenders, half of them come from the past two years and the other four are spread between 2010 and 2013, offering a well-rounded and deserving field. The next round will be particularly painful as most of these are #1 and #2 seeds, which were so close to begin with in the initial seeding votes. And even if Wally Pfister, a #4 seed, makes it through, he’d be more than deserving as well.
Stay tuned for the round 3 results, which will be posted next week on Friday, March 30!
Featured image via Fox Searchlight Pictures/Paramount Pictures/Warners Bros.