This category boasts some unexpectedly nominated films, while leaving out the film that most had presumed was the frontrunner to win: Top Gun: Maverick. Two films with no other nominations are here, Empire of Light and Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths. They come from mainstays, with Roger Deakins the category’s record holder, boasting two previous wins and sixteen career nominations. His most recent win came for another collaboration with director Sam Mendes, 1917, in 2019, and he won two years before that for Blade Runner 2049. Darius Khondji has one previous nomination, for Evita. This is the first nomination for the other three, which all contend for Best Picture: James Friend for All Quiet on the Western Front, Mandy Walker for Elvis, and Florian Hoffmeister for Tár. While Friend did win the BAFTA, he’s not up for the American Society of Cinematographers Award, which will be handed out this coming weekend. The last time a film won this prize without being nominated there for the was Pan’s Labyrinthback in 2006. But period and war films do well here, so it’s likely that the well-regarded epic can triumph.

Should win: All Quiet on the Western Front

Will win: All Quiet on the Western Front

Spoiler: Elvis