Watch: Every Best Cinematography Oscar Winner Ever
This gorgeous supercut shows every winner of the Academy Award for Best Cinematography, from 1927 to this year's nominees.
The technology of cinematography has come a long way since 1927, the inaugural Oscars ceremony, which awarded Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. F.W. Murnau's German Expressionist film is notable for its distorted art direction and groundbreaking cinematography by Charles Rosher and Karl Struss, featuring visually-striking tracking shots and forced perspective. Last year's Best Cinematography winner, The Revenant, was the first film shot on the ALEXA 65; the camera's 65mm digital sensor lent the footage a filmic look and enabled cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki to shoot using mostly natural light.
But while technology can certainly bolster a film's aesthetic, cameras are ultimately tools—they are only as strong as the humans behind them. This fact has never been more clear than in an exquisite new video by Burger Fiction that showcases the Best Cinematography winners throughout Oscar history. Though the movies featured in the supercut traverse nearly the entire history of cinema camera innovation, artistry remains impervious to time; some of the greatest aesthetic achievements in cinematography belong to films of another era.
Here's the complete list of Best Cinematography Oscar winners from 1927 to 2016:
- Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (1927/28) - Charles Rosher & Karl Struss
- White Shadows In The South Seas (1928/29) - Clyde De Vinna
- With Byrd At The South Pole (1929/30) - Joseph T. Rucker & Willard Van der Veer
- Tabu: A Story Of The South Seas (1930/31) - Floyd Crosby
- Shanghai Express (1931/32) - Lee Garmes
- A Farewell To Arms (1932/33) - Charles Lang
- Cleopatra (1934) - Victor Milner
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) - Hal Mohr
- Anthony Adverse (1936 B&W) - Tony Gaudio
- The Garden Of Allah (1936 COLOR) - W. Howard Greene & Harold Rosson
- The Good Earth (1937 B&W) - Karl Freund
- A Star Is Born (1937 COLOR) - W. Howard Greene
- The Great Waltz (1938 B&W) - Joseph Ruttenberg
- Sweethearts (1938 COLOR) - Oliver T. Marsh & Allen Davey
- Wuthering Heights (1939 B&W) - Gregg Toland
- Gone With The Wind (1939 COLOR) - Ernest Haller & Ray Rennahan
- Rebecca (1940 B&W) - George Barnes
- The Thief Of Bagdad (1940 COLOR) - Georges Perinal
- How Green Was My Valley (1941 B&W) - Arthur C. Miller
- Blood And Sand (1941 COLOR) - Ernest Palmer & Ray Rennahan
- Mrs. Miniver (1942 B&W) - Joseph Ruttenberg
- The Black Swan (1942 COLOR) - Leon Shamroy
- The Song Of Bernadette (1943 B&W) - Arthur C. Miller
- Phantom Of The Opera (1943 COLOR) - Hal Mohr & W. Howard Greene
- Laura (1944 B&W) - Joseph LaShelle
- Wilson (1944 COLOR) - Leon Shamroy
- The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1945 B&W) - Harry Stradling
- Leave Her To Heaven (1945 COLOR) - Leon Shamroy
- Anna And The King Of Siam (1945 B&W) - Arthur C. Miller
- The Yearling (1946 COLOR) - Charles Rosher, Leonard Smith & Arthur E. Arling
- Great Expectations (1947 B&W) - Guy Green
- Black Narcissus (1947 COLOR) - Jack Cardiff
- The Naked City (1948 B&W) - William H. Daniels
- Joan Of Arc (1948 COLOR) - Joseph A. Valentine, William V. Skall & Winton Hoch
- Battleground (1949 B&W) - Paul C. Vogel
- She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949 COLOR) - Winton Hoch
- The Third Man (1950 B&W) - Robert Krasker
- King Solomon’s Mines (1950 COLOR) - Robert Surtees
- A Place In The Sun (1951 B&W) - William C. Mellor
- An American In Paris (1951 COLOR) - Alfred Gilks & John Alton
- The Bad And The Beautiful (1952 B&W) - Robert Surtees
- The Quiet Man (1952 COLOR) - Winton Hoch & Archie Stout
- From Here To Eternity (1953 B&W) - Burnett Guffey
- Shane (1953 COLOR) - Loyal Griggs
- On The Waterfront (1954 B&W) - Boris Kaufman
- Three Coins In The Fountain (1954 COLOR) - Milton R. Krasner
- The Rose Tattoo (1955 B&W) - James Wong Howe
- To Catch A Thief (1955 COLOR) - Robert Burks
- Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956 B&W) - Joseph Ruttenberg
- Around The World In 80 Days (1956 COLOR) - Lionel Lindon
- The Bridge On The River Kwai (1957) - Jack Hildyard
- The Defiant Ones (1958 B&W) - Sam Leavitt
- Gigi (1958 COLOR) - Joseph Ruttenberg
- The Diary Of Anne Frank (1959 B&W) - William C. Mellor
- Ben-Hur (1959 COLOR) - Robert Surtees
- Sons And Lovers (1960 B&W) - Freddie Francis
- Spartacus (1960 COLOR) - Russel Metty
- The Hustler (1961 B&W) - Eugen Schufftan
- West Side Story (1961 COLOR) - Daniel L. Fapp
- The Longest Day (1962 B&W) - Jean Bourgoin & Walter Wottitz
- Lawrence Of Arabia (1962 COLOR) - Freddie Young
- Hud (1963 B&W) - James Wong Howe
- Cleopatra (1963 COLOR) - Leon Shamroy
- Zorba The Greek (1964 B&W) - Walter Lassally
- My Fair Lady (1964 COLOR) - Harry Stradling
- Ship Of Fools (1965 B&W) - Ernest Laszlo
- Doctor Zhivago (1965 COLOR) - Freddie Young
- Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966 B&W) - Haskell Wexler
- A Man For All Seasons (1966 COLOR) - Ted Moore
- Bonnie And Clyde (1967) - Burnett Guffey
- Romeo And Juliet (1968) - Pasqualino De Santis
- Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid (1969) - Conrad L. Hall
- Ryan’s Daughter (1970) - Freddie Young
- Fiddler On The Roof (1971) - Oswald Morris
- Cabaret (1972) - Geoffrey Unsworth
- Cries And Whispers (1973) - Sven Nykvist
- The Towering Inferno (1974) - Fred J. Koenekamp & Joseph F. Biroc
- Barry Lyndon (1975) - John Alcott
- Bound For Glory (1976) - Haskell Wexler
- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) - Vilmos Zsigmond
- Days Of Heaven (1978) - Nestor Almendros
- Apocalypse Now (1979) - Vittorio Storaro
- Tess (1980) - Geoffrey Unsworth & Ghislain Cloquet
- Reds (1981) - Vittorio Storaro
- Gandhi (1982) - Billy Williams & Ronnie Taylor
- Fanny And Alexander (1983) - Sven Nykvist
- The Killing Fields (1984) - Chris Menges
- Out Of Africa (1985) - David Watkin
- The Mission (1986) - Chris Menges
- The Last Emperor (1987) - Vittorio Storaro
- Mississippi Burning (1988) - Peter Biziou
- Glory (1989) - Freddie Francis
- Dances With Wolves (1990) - Dean Semler
- JFK (1991) - Robert Richardson
- A River Runs Through It (1992) - Philippe Rousselot
- Schindler’s List (1993) - Janusz Kaminski
- Legends Of The Fall (1994) - John Toll
- Braveheart (1995) - John Toll
- The English Patient (1996) - John Seale
- Titanic (1997) - Russell Carpenter
- Saving Private Ryan (1998) - Janusz Kaminski
- American Beauty (1999) - Conrad L. Hall
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) - Peter Pau
- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (2001) - Andrew Lesnie
- Road To Perdition (2002) - Conrad L. Hall
- Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003) - Russell Boyd
- The Aviator (2004) - Robert Richardson
- Memoirs Of A Geisha (2005) - Dion Beebe
- Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) - Guillermo Navarro
- There Will Be Blood (2007) - Robert Elswit
- Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - Anthony Dod Mantle
- Avatar (2009) - Mauro Fiore
- Inception (2010) - Wally Pfister
- Hugo (2011) - Robert Richardson
- Life Of Pi (2012) - Claudio Miranda
- Gravity (2013) - Emmanuel Lubezki
- Birdman (2014) - Emmanuel Lubezki
- The Revenant (2015) - Emmanuel Lubezki
