Is the 14th time the charm for Deakins?
Can we please give Roger Deakins an Academy Award this year? The 68- year- old cinematographer is nominated for his work on Denis Villeneuve’s stunning Blade Runner 2049. It’s his 14th nomination without a win, stretching back to The Shawshank Redemption in 1995.
Deakins has been nominated twice before for films by Villeneuve: Sicario in 2016 and Prisoners in 2015. He’s also a regular collaborator with the Coen brothers, with nominations for Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn’t There, No Country for Old Men and True Grit. He has been nominated for popular movies (Skyfall), prestige films (Kundun), even the occasional flub (Unbroken). But he has never won.
Deakins isn’t the losing-est nominee in Oscar history — not yet. Sound mixer Kevin O’Connell had 20 nominations (sometimes two in the same year) before winning last year for Hacksaw Ridge. Composer Victor Young’s sad story involves 20 nominations without a win, even in years when he was nominated three or four times for various films. His sole win came in 1957, for Around the World in 80 Days, but he had died the previous November.
And spare a thought for Greg P. Russell. The sound mixer has 16 nominations without a win, stretching back to 1990. His 17th, for 13 Hours, was shared with three other mixers, but his name was removed from the ballot after it was revealed he had been phoning voters. This is against Academy rules, and the film didn’t win in any case, but can you blame him?
Deakins gave us an eyepopping view of the future’s future in Blade Runner 2049: dust-strewn garbage dumps; an abandoned, sun- baked Las Vegas; extreme weather; replicants and holograms meshing in a weird dance of love. That has to be worth something.