Dune has been racking up award after award, most recently winning five awards at the BAFTA Awards last week. The film's director of photography Greig Fraser continues the trend of winning awards for his work on the film. Fraser received the American Society of Cinematographers' top honor at their 36th annual ASC Awards, taking home the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Feature Film.
Fraser was unable to attend the ceremony, having tested positive for COVID-19 last week, with Katelin Arizmendi, who served as Fraser’s 2nd-Unit Director of Photography on Dune and has also been previously nominated for an ASC Award for her work on the 2019 indie feature Swallow, accepting the award on his behalf. Last year's winner of the award, Mank's Erik Messerschmidt, presented her with the award. Arizmendi then provided a pre-written statement from Fraser, thanking his family for the constant support as well as the film's crew with special reference Arizmendi, saying "I couldn't have made Dune without Kate and her incredible skill. Most people don't this, but Kate actually, pretty much framed and lit every single shot in Dune... That’s the power of the Arizmendi. If you want to watch an amazing film, go see Swallow, which Kate shot before Dune. It's amazing; it actually inspired Dune." He also voiced his gratitude to the film's director Denis Villeneuve and congratulated other nominees for their work, singling out Ari Wegner, who was nominated for her work on The Power of the Dog and with whom he worked on the 2009 Australian film, Last Ride, saying how "super-proud of what [she] has become as a cinematographer."
The other nominees for the Feature Film category were Haris Zambarloukos for his work on Belfast, Nightmare Alley's Dan Lausten, the previously mentioned Ari Wegner for The Power of the Dog, and Bruno Delbonnel for The Tragedy Macbeth. Fraser is also nominated for the Cinematography Award at the upcoming 2022 Oscars. Out of the last 10 winners of that Award, six had also won that year's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Feature Film at the ASC Awards, so this as well as the several other wins for his work on Dune bodes well for Fraser come March 27.
This marks Fraser's second ASC Award win, having gotten the same Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Feature Film back in 2017 for his work on Garth Davis' 2016 film Lion, which he also received a BAFTA nomination for Best Cinematography on. While that outing on Lion only netted him the ACS Award, Fraser also received the BAFTA for Best Cinematography for Dune last week. He was also nominated for the ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Episode of a Half-Hour Television Series in 2021 for his work on the first episode of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian. He has most recently worked on Matt Reeves' newly released film The Batman.
Fraser will return as a cinematographer in Dune: Part 2, slated to hit theaters on October 23, 2023. Dune is available on HBO Max or Hulu with a premium subscription.