Drooling On Brad. Or Why Benjamin Button Might Win the Cinematography Oscar

The Oscars are but one week and a day away. My final predictions will be up tomorrow... and then the Oscar Symposium begins. Remember that? But until then let's talk Cinematography. The nominees are Slumdog Millionaire, Changeling, The Dark Knight, The Reader and Benjamin Button. In January it looked like the legendary Roger Deakins might pull two nods for Revolutionary Road and The Reader, but no Kate Winslet double feature emerged in the nominations. And Deakins is at a disadvantage yet again in terms of securing his first win. The frontrunner for this category, the frontrunner for most categories [sigh], is Slumdog Millionaire. But if there's a place outside of makeup and visual effects for Button to improve its trophy haul, it's right here.

Silly trivia alert!

You see... Button's DP Claudio Miranda was filming Brad Pitt. It's time you knew: Lighting golden god Brad to perfection trumps nearly all in this category, including the lighting of our English Rose (Kate). Consider...

Pitt & the Cinematography Oscar:
Adrian Biddle for Thelma & Louise (91)
Phillipe Rousselot for A River Runs Through It (92)
John Toll for Legends of the Fall (94)
Roger Deakins for The Assassination of Jesse James... (07)

Most of the technical branches within the Oscars (with the exception of rogue creatives in the MakeUp and Costume Design fields) tend to limit their selections to Best Picture candidates so it says something when a film can get nominated in a category without being in play for the big prize. No cinematographer who has ever caressed Brad's cheekbones with a golden filter or outlined his musculature with a back light needed Best Picture momentum to be nominated (Benjamin Button is only Brad Pitt's second appearance in a Best Picture nominee -- Babel was the first but strangely missed a cinematography nod).

Lighting Kate Winslet will bring you more typical results. You're in the running only if your film also has best picture heat

Winslet & the Cinematography Oscar:
Michael Coulter for Sense & Sensibility (95)
Russell Carpenter for Titanic (97)
Roger Deakins and Chris Menges for The Reader (08)

The snub for Revolutionary Road and the nomination for The Reader underline this theory yet again.

Now, I'm not trying to say that the cinematographer's branch is queer for Brad Pitt in the way that, say, David Fincher is. But they definitely have a mancrush.

Do you think Slumdog's color explosions take this one with ease or does Button win on its ample sensuality?

Frontrunners
Anthony Dod Mantle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
Claudio Miranda for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)

Or maybe you're throwing caution to the wind and predicting career honors for Roger Deakins (in tandem with double Oscar winner Chris Menges) for the Reader ? Where do you think this particular statue is going? And what's your choice -- you can vote on your favorite at the site.
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