ASC Awards: ‘Snowfall’ & ‘Mythic Quest’ Among Early Winners – Updating Live

The American Society of Cinematographers is framing it 36th annual ASC Awards tonight, and Deadline is updating the winners as they’re announced. See the list below.

Debbie Allen is hosting the in-person ceremony from the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood. The awards in seven categories represent the group’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past year.

The Documentary prize was the first one awarded tonight. Presented by Dune’s Denis Villeneuve, it went to Jessica Beshir for Faya Dayi.

The first TV prize, for Half-Hour Television Series, went to Michael Berlucchi for Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest  (“Backstory!”). Tommy Maddox-Upshaw picked up the award for One-Hour Television Series (Commercial) for FX’s Snowfall (“Weight”).

This year’s nominees for the marquee for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases prize are Bruno Delbonnel for The Tragedy of Macbeth, Greig Fraser for Dune, Dan Laustsen for Nightmare Alley, Ari Wegner for The Power of the Dog and Haris Zambarloukos for Belfast. All but Delbonnel also are nominated for the Best Cinematography Academy Award, with West Side Story’s Janusz Kaminski up for the Oscar. All of those titles also are vying for Best Picture next weekend.

The two films coming into tonight with the most momentum are Dune, which won the cinematography prize at the BAFTA Film Awards last week, and The Power of the Dog, which fetched the Critics Choice Award that same day.

The ASC film winner historically goes on to win the Oscar about half the time — 16 times in the past 35 years, including golden the double for Mank last year. It’s worth noting that Mank is a black-and-white film, as are Belfast and The Tragedy of Macbeth, along with Guillermo del Toro’s alt-version of Nightmare Alley, for that matter.

This year’s ASC honorees are two-time Emmy winner and 2009 Oscar nominee Ellen Kuras, the first woman to receive ASC’s Lifetime Achievement Award; two-time Emmy winner Peter Levy (Career Achievement in Television Award); Field of Dreams DP and union leader John Lindley (President’s Award); and Panavision VP Optical Engineering Dan Sasaki (Curtis Clark Technical Achievement Award).

Here are the winners announced at the ASC Awards thus far, followed by the remaining nominees:

WINNERS

Episode of a One-Hour Television Series – Commercial
Thomas Burstyn
SNOWPIERCER – Episode: Our Answer for Everything

Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series
Michael Berlucchi
MYTHIC QUEST – Episode: Backstory!

Documentary
Jessica Beshir
FAYA DAYI