Chicagoan Wally Pfister Wins ASC Award for Inception

By Rob Christopher in Arts & Entertainment on Feb 15, 2011 4:00PM

Immediately catapulting him into the sweet spot for the Best Cinematography Oscar, Wally Pfister took home his first American Society of Cinematographers award over the weekend. Born in Chicago, the son of a TV producer, Pfister has worked with director Chris Nolan since Memento. He had previously been nominated for Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. Roger Deakins (True Grit) was favored to win, but instead had to settle for an ASC LIfetime Achievement Award.

Interestingly the two have very different opinions when it comes to approaching cinematography. Deakins is gung-ho when it comes to digital filmmaking, declaring, "Am I nostalgic for film? … I mean, it’s had a good run, hasn’t it?" (In the same interview he even denigrates the technical quality of Citizen Kane!) Pfister, on the other hand, is a celluloid die-hard. "The notion that digital medium is faster and cheaper is a fallacy and a false economy," he says in a testimony for Kodak. And he's adamant that The Dark Knight Rises will not be shot in 3-D: "I think one of the biggest problems for Chris, and I would second this, in doing a film in 3-D is it has to be shot in a video process, and we're film people to the end. You'll have to pry that film camera out of my dead hands."

Inception was certainly one of the most beautiful films we watched in 2010, and we'll definitely be rooting for Pfister on Oscar night. If he does win, it would be a prime opportunity to outguess Roger Ebert, who picked Deakins.