Breaking Baz: Tom Ford, Annie Lennox, Livia Firth And Jerry Hall Passionate About Saving Planet; Cate Blanchett Celebrates Aussie Movies; Baz Luhrmann Says It’s Time For A Woman To Win Cinematography Oscar
deadline.comBaz Luhrmann says it would be “an amazing historical moment” if Elvis cinematographer Mandy Walker were to triumph at Sunday’s Academy Awards.
To quote Lizzo, “It’s been too long,” the filmmaker tells me last night at the Australian Oscar nominees soirée held in the Chateau Marmont’s penthouse suite.
The Elvis director reasons that a woman hasn’t won an Oscar for best cinematographer thus far because “the camera unit is just the last bastion of blokeyness and probably comes down to who do you want to have a beer with.” That’s grossly unfair, he says. ”It can be a bit laddish and a bit cowboy.” Walker started out as a clapper loader and worked her way up. “She can run the film unit like an army and yet maintain her Mandyness,” Luhrmann adds. “She’s a trailblazer,” he says, pointing out that “when she shot Australia, Mandy was the first woman to shoot a $100 million movie.” They’ve worked together on Australia and Elvis plus two exquisite shorts for Chanel, one featuring Nicole Kidman the other with Gisele Bündchen.
Lurhmann’s keen to work with Walker again as soon as he can work out the project that’s “going to be right for my growth and what’s worth putting out there.” Graeme Mason, the CEO of Screen Australia, noted that Walker won the American Society of Cinematographers’ ASC Award for her work behind the camera on Elvis. “That’s a good sign!” Frankly, I was pretty impressed Mason was still standing, having landed a couple of hours before the shindig from Perth, Western Australia.
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