ASC Awards: 36th Annual Winners

The 36th Annual ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography took place during a hybrid event at the ASC Clubhouse.

The event was both in person at the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood and live-streamed online. It wasn’t without technical difficulties as the live-stream went down at times.

One thing is clear from tonight’s results: we’ve got ourselves an Oscars race. While Netflix would like Ari Wegner to become the first female to win Best Cinematographer, the Oscar is not a guarantee at this point. BAFTA and Critics Choice split between Greig Fraser and Ari Wegner. The BSC Awards honored Wegner with the award. Meanwhile, ASC honored Fraser with their award tonight. We’ll know for certain come next Sunday but Greig Fraser is now the Oscars favorite. He’s certainly going to be back next year as a contender with his stunning work on The Batman.

The Winners

Feature Film
Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS for Dune
Category Sponsored by Keslow Camera

Spotlight Award
Pat Scola for Pig
Category Sponsored by Panavision

Documentary Award
Jessica Beshir for Faya Dayi
Category Sponsored by Sony

Motion Picture, Limited Series or Pilot Made for Television
James Laxton, ASC for The Underground Railroad | Episode: “Chapter 9: Indiana Winter”
Category Sponsored by ARRI

Episode of a One-Hour Series Non-Commercial Television
Jon Joffin, ASC, CSC for Titans | Episode: “Souls”
Category Sponsored by Panavision

Episode of a One-Hour Series Commercial Television
Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, ASC for Snowfall | Episode: “Weight”
Category Sponsored by Red Digital Cinema

Episode of a Half-Hour Series Television
Michael Berlucchi & Marc Carter for Mythic Quest | Episode: “Backstory!”
Category Sponsored by Picture Shop

This is the second ASC feature award for Fraser, who won in 2017 for LION. Fraser was also nominated in 2021 for THE MANDALORIAN. Joffin won last year for MOTHERLAND: FORT SALEM and in 2019 for BEYOND. He has also earned nominations for ALICE (2011) and THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (2009). Laxton was previously nominated in 2017 in the feature category for MOONLIGHT.

Last year’s ASC feature film winner was Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, who went on to win the Oscar for Best Achievement in Cinematography for MANK.

Honorary awards were also presented at the ceremony with Ellen Kuras, ASC, becoming the first woman to receive the ASC Lifetime Achievement Award. The award was presented to Kuras by Rachel Morrison, ASC, who Oscar nominated for MUDBOUND in the Cinematography category.

Peter Levy, ASC, ACS (PREDATOR 2, CALIFORNICATION) received the Career Achievement in Television Award from his longtime collaborator director Stephen Hopkins.

Rebecca Rhine and Amy Vincent, ASC presented John Lindley, ASC (FIELD OF DREAMS, ST. VINCENT) with the ASC Presidents Award.

The inaugural Curtis Clark Technical Achievement Award was given to Panavision’s Vice President of Optical Engineering and Lens Strategy Dan Sasaki by ASC associate member Jay Holben, who is also a technical editorial for American Cinematographer.