ASC Awards: ‘Mank’, ‘The Crown’, ‘The Mandalorian’ Take Top Honors – Full Winners List

By Tom Tapp

Black and white made a comeback on Sunday when the American Society of Cinematographers announced its 35th Annual ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards winners. The honors celebrate excellence in the feature film, documentary and television cinematography categories. In the former of those, Erik Messerschmidt took home the Theatrical Release trophy for his B&W artistry on Mank.

The Crown and The Mandalorian came up big among the event’s TV winners, for One-Hour Television Series – Non-Commercial and Half-Hour Series for Television, respectively.

The awards represent the organization’s picks for the most compelling visual filmmaking over the past 14 months.

The Society bestowed the ASC Board of Governors Award to filmmaker Sofia Coppola for her contributions to cinema through her body of work. It is the only ASC Award not given to a cinematographer and is reserved for industry stalwarts who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form. The Oscar winner appreciated the tribute saying, “It’s the coolest award that I’ve ever gotten.”

The Michael Chapman & Allen Daviau Student Heritage Award is being awarded to Ai Chung for A Young Tough in the Michael Chapman Graduate Category and Elias Ginsberg for Milk Teeth in the Allen Daviau Undergraduate Category.

The Haskell Wexler Student Documentary Award will be given to Melanie Grams for Driven

The virtual ceremony was held the historic ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood. Appropriate to the afternoon’s big winner, longtime host Ben Mankiewicz — Herman Mankiewicz’s grandson — was back, adding a few TCM-ish jokes to the proceedings.

Below is the FULL LIST OF NOMINEES, with winners updated in bold up top:

THEATRICAL RELEASE
Erik Messerschmidt, ASC for Mank
Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC for The Trial of the Chicago 7
Joshua James Richards for Nomadland
Newton Thomas Sigel, ASC for Cherry
Dariusz Wolski, ASC for News of the World

MOTION PICTURE, MINISERIES, OF PILOT MADE FOR TELEVISION
Martin Ahlgren, ASC for The Plot Against America “Part 6”
Anette Haellmigk for The Great “The Great”
Pete Konczal for Fargo “The Birthplace of Civilization”
Steven Meizler for The Queen’s Gambit “End Game”
Gregory Middleton, ASC, CSC for Watchmen “This Extraordinary Being”

SPOTLIGHT AWARD
Katelin Arizmendi for Swallow
Aurélien Marra for Two of Us
Andrey Naidenov for Dear Comrades!

EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR TELEVISION SERIES – NON-COMMERCIAL
David Franco for Perry Mason “Chapter 2”
Ken Glassing for Lucifer “It Never Ends Well for the Chicken”
Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC, BSC for The Crown “Fairytale”
David Greene, ASC, CSC for Impulse “The Moroi”
M. David Mullen, ASC for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel “It’s Comedy or Cabbage”
Fabian Wagner, ASC, BSC for The Crown “Imbroglio”

EPISODE OF A ONE-HOUR TELEVISION SERIES – COMMERCIAL
Marshall Adams, ASC for Better Call Saul “Bagman”
Carlos Catalán for Killing Eve “Meetings Have Biscuits”
François Dagenais, CSC for Project Blue Book “Area 51”
Jon Joffin, ASC for Motherland: Fort Salem “Up is Down”
C. Kim Miles, ASC, CSC, MySC for Project Blue Book “Operation Mainbrace”

DOCUMENTARY
Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for The Truffle Hunters
Egil Håskjold Larsen and Victor Kossakovsky for Gunda
Gianfranco Rosi for Notturno

EPISODE OF A HALF-HOUR SERIES FOR TELEVISION
Ava Berkofsky for Insecure “Lowkey Lost”
Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS for The Mandalorian “Chapter 1: The Mandalorian”
Baz Idoine for The Mandalorian “Chapter 13: The Jedi”
Matthew Jensen, ASC for The Mandalorian “Chapter 15: The Believer”
Jas Shelton for Homecoming “Giant”