‘Maria,’ ‘Nickel Boys,’ ‘Shōgun,’ and More Win at the 2025 ASC Awards
“Maria” cinematographer Edward Lachman won the Feature Film prize at the 39th annual ASC Awards, February 23 at The Beverly Hilton. His surprise win beat out Academy Award favorites “Dune: Part Two” (Greig Fraser) and “The Brutalist” (Lol Crawley), as well as “Nosferatu” (Jarin Blaschke), “Conclave” (Stéphane Fontaine), “A Complete Unknown” (Phedon Papamichael), and “Wicked” (Alice Brooks). The expanded list was due to how close the percentage of voting was.
This marks Lachman’s first win after five nominations at the ASC Awards. He was previously nominated for his work with Todd Haynes on “Mildred Pierce,” “Far From Heaven,” and “Carol,” as well as his previous effort with Pablo Larraín, “El Conde.” His second project with the Chilean filmmaker, “Maria,” follows the last days of opera singer Maria Callas as she reflects on her life and the struggle of maintaining her own voice. It serves as a culmination of Larraín’s “Important Women” Trilogy, the other two films beings “Jackie” and “Spencer.” To tell this story, which spans multiple decades and locales, Lachman made use of Kodak film in 35mm, 16mm, and Super 8, shooting on both color and black-and white stock.
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On the TV side, the American Society of Cinematographers awarded Robert Elswit in the Limited Series category for “Ripley,” Richard Rutkowski in the Half-Hour Episodic category for “Sugar,” and Sam McMurdy in the One-Hour Episodic category for “Shōgun,” while “Gaucho Gaucho” and “313” took the documentary and music video categories.
Meanwhile, The Spotlight Award went to Jomo Fray for “Nickel Boys,” RaMell Ross’ Best Picture-nominated historical drama about two African-American boys sent to an abusive reform school in ’60s Florida. This was a good weekend for Fray, who also won Best Cinematography at the Spirit Awards.
“The approach to ‘Nickel Boys’ involved us unlearning a lot of the traditional practices of filmmaking,” Fray told IndieWire. “RaMell and I used the term POV as a short-hand, but I believe we were truly after an image with a sentience to it — an image that had real bodily stakes attached to it. We wanted to try and create an image that was hyper-subjective and immersive for the audience.”
As previously reported ASC honorees included Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Board of Governors Award; cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak (“The Verdict”), Lifetime Achievement Award; Michael Goi (“American Horror Story”), Career Achievement in Television Award; cinematographer John Simmons (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Presidents Television Award; cinematographer Joan Churchill (“Soldier Girls”), Lifetime Documentary Award; and underwater cinematographer Pete Romano (“Saving Private Ryan”), Curtis Clark ASC Technology Award.
See the full list of winners in bold below:
Theatrical Feature Film
Jarin Blaschke for “Nosferatu” (Focus Features)
Alice Brooks, ASC for “Wicked” (Universal Pictures)
Lol Crawley, BSC for “The Brutalist” (A24)
Stéphane Fontaine, AFC for “Conclave” (Focus Features)
Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS for “Dune: Part Two” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
Edward Lachman, ASC for “Maria” (Netflix) (WINNER)
Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC, GCA for “A Complete Unknown” (Searchlight Pictures)
Episode of a Half-Hour Series
Adam Bricker, ASC for “Hacks” – “Just for Laughs” (Max)
Carl Herse for “The Franchise”– “Sc 31A: Tecto Meets Eye” (HBO)
Richard Rutkowski, ASC for “Sugar” – “Starry-Eyed” (Apple TV+) (WINNER)
Seamus Tierney for “Emily in Paris” – “Masquerade” (Netflix)
Kyle Wullschleger for “Only Murders in the Building”– “Once Upon a Time in the West” (Hulu)
Limited or Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television
Adam Arkapaw, ACS for “Masters of the Air” – “Part Three” (Apple TV+)
Michael Berlucchi for “Interior Chinatown” – “Generic Asian Man” (Hulu)
Robert Elswit, ASC for “Ripley” – “Lucio” (Netflix) (WINNER)
Jonathan Freeman, ASC for “The Penguin” – “Homecoming” (HBO)
Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC & Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC for “Disclaimer” – “Episode I” (Apple TV+)
Zo? White, ACS for “Hold Your Breath” (Hulu)
Episode of a One-Hour Regular Series
Adriano Goldman, ASC, ABC, BSC for “The Crown” – “Sleep, Dearie Sleep” (Netflix)
Catherine Goldschmidt, BSC for “House of the Dragon” – “The Queen Who Ever Was” (HBO)
Baz Irvine, BSC, ISC for “Silo” – “The Engineer” (Apple TV+)
Alejandro Martinez, AMC for “House of Dragon” – “Rhaenyra the Cruel” (HBO)
Sam Mccurdy, ASC, BSC for “Shōgun” – “Crimson Sky” (FX) (WINNER)
Christopher Ross, BSC for “Shōgun” – “Anjin” (FX)
Spotlight Award
Michal Dymek for “The Girl with the Needle” (MUBI)
Jomo Fray for “Nickel Boys” (Amazon MGM Studios) (WINNER)
Klaus Kneist and Renata Mwende for “Nawi” (MUBI and Baobab Pictures)
Documentary Award
Michael Crommett for “Photographer: Dan Winters Life is Once. Forever.” (National Geographic)
Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw for “Gaucho Gaucho” (Jolt) (WINNER)
Andrey Stefanov for “Porcelain War” (Picturehouse)
ASC Music Video Award
Pepe Avila del Pino, AMC for “313” (Performed by Residente, Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Penelope Cruz)
Scott Cunningham, ASC for “Rebound” (Performed by Jennifer Lopez)
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC for “Fortnight” (Performed by Taylor Swift featuring Post Malone)
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