Best Cinematography

Of the 686 nominees for Best Cinematography, less than 1% or 3 were women.* In 94 of the 97 years included in the analysis, there have been no women nominated for this award. The three women that have been nominated since 2018 are Rachel Morrison (2018), Ari Wegner (2022), and Mandy Walker (2023). No women of color have been nominated for Best Cinematography, and no woman has ever won.

There have been 47 underrepresented nominees out of 686 nominations for Best Cinematography.* This means that 7% of all nominees were from an underrepresented racial/ethnic group. Only 7 underrepresented nominees have won the award–5% of all winners. Ten nominations were held by one person: James Wong Howe. In fact, he was nominated 8 times between 1939 and 1964, the only underrepresented nominee in that time frame. More recently, between 2011 and 2024, 6 separate underrepresented cinematographers were nominated. Matthew Libatique (2011, 2019, 2024), Claudio Miranda (2013), Bradford Young (2017), Rodrigo Prieto (2017, 2020, 2024), Alfonso Cuarón (2019), and Darius Khondji (2023) were all nominated in this time frame.

The 47 underrepresented nominees represent 24 individual people, 7 of whom have been nominated more than once in this category, including 2 nominees in 2024. In contrast, there were 228 individual white nominees who filled 639 nominations across 97 years. A total of 116 white nominees–all men–received more than one nomination, with 9 of those white men earning 10 or more nominations.