Cinematography is a vital aspect of great filmmaking. Without a strong director of photography with a point of view, a film can be somewhat lacking even if every other aspect of the movie is firing on all cylinders. Film is a visual medium after all, and great cinematography has the power to transport audiences to a new world, to put audiences in the shoes of a character, or to even relay a theme using visual metaphor.

We ranked all the Best Cinematography Oscar winners from the 21st century so far, dating back to 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon up to Hoyte van Hoytema's recent win for Oppenheimer. There’s a surprising amount of versatility on this list, and it’s interesting to see how the art of cinematography has evolved over the past nearly two decades as digital photography has taken hold. None of these winners are “bad” per se so I hesitate to say we start with the worst, but here are all 24 Best Cinematography Oscar winners of the 21st century ranked.

24 'Memoirs of a Geisha' (2005)

What Should Have Won: 'The New World'

Cinematographer Dion Beebe’s work here definitely isn’t bad, it’s just pretty forgettable—much like the film itself. Memoirs of a Geisha was director Rob Marshall’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning take on Chicago, but the film kind of evaporated into thin air. Beebe’s use of light is most notable here, but yeah, beyond that this one’s just kind of fine.

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23 'Avatar' (2009)

What Should Have Won: 'Inglourious Basterds'

Okay yes, Avatar is groundbreaking, but on a pure cinematography level, Mauro Fiore’s work here is just alright. Really this award feels like it was more for the technical achievement of the performance capture and all-CG scenes, which is fine, but if we’re talking the art of photography here the images that Fiore and James Cameron conjure are actually fairly basic. Again, though, the win here is understandable given how this film paved the way for shooting performance-capture actors and all-CG environments.

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22 'All Quiet on the Western Front' (2022)

What Should Have Won: 'TÁR'

War films are often nominated, but surprisingly rarely win in this category, as the two previous winners before All Quiet on the Western Front were 1971 and Saving Private Ryan. James Friend's work for Edward Berger's film certainly owes a lot to both of those films, using similar tactics to approach the "war is hell" messaging of this film. That's not to say that Friend's cinematography isn't award-worthy, as All Quiet is often stunning in the horrors it's showing, but it's hard to imagine this film also existing without the film language created by those previous two winners.

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21 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' (2000)

What Should Have Won: 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?'

Peter Pau’s work in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is most notable for its fluidity, as director Ang Lee captures his actors’ high-flying stunts. And it’s cool and beautiful and neat, but in direct contrast to Roger Deakins’ groundbreaking work on O Brother, Where Art Thou? which experimented with the photochemical process to stunning results, it falls way, way short.

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20 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World' (2003)

What Should Have Won: 'Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World'

Director Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a vastly underrated film, but it’s nice to know the movie came away with a win in this category. Shooting on the open water is notoriously difficult, but cinematographer Russell Boyd manages to bring this sea-set adventure to life in a way that puts the audience right on the ship. The foggy frame mimics the solitary nature of the crew’s position, and the ship battles are brought to life with vivacity and gusto.

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19 'Mank' (2021)

What Should Have Won: 'Nomadland'

Nominated and winning for his first film, Erik Messerschmidt's work in David Fincher's Mank is a fairly demanding debut. Not only is working with Fincher a major accomplishment in and of itself, but Messerschmidt had to often recreate various techniques used by Orson Welles in Citizen Kane as a way to bridge the story of the writer behind the film with the film itself. Mank has been criticized for its slow pace since its release, but in every frame, Messerschmidt is doing incredible work, and utilizing Welles' work in a truly fascinating way.

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18 'Pan’s Labyrinth' (2006)

What Should Have Won: 'Children of Men'

Guillermo del Toro’s masterful fairy tale Pan’s Labyrinth marked a somewhat surprising choice for this award in 2006, but the filmmaker’s longtime cinematographer Guillermo Navarro did excellent work. The use of color in particular is swell, as is the fluid motion of the camera that keeps the audience engaged. And yet, going up against Emmanuel Lubezki’s phenomenal work in Children of Men, it feels like the Academy got this one wrong.

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17 'Hugo' (2011)

What Should Have Won: 'The Tree of Life'

Hugo was a film of firsts for director Martin Scorsese. It was not only his first film made specifically for younger audiences, but also his first time working with the 3D format. The film historian that he is, Scorsese doesn’t simply use 3D as a gimmick here, and in working with cinematographer Robert Richardson finds intriguing and exciting ways to use the 3D format to underline basic principles of filmmaking. This goes hand in hand with the film’s subject matter, which deals with the early days of cinema and how the art of the moving image was born, and one imagines only Scorsese could make a 3D film that was this intentional.

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16 'Slumdog Millionaire' (2008)

What Should Have Won: 'The Dark Knight'

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle made a name for himself with the Dogme 95 movement, bringing experimental filmmaking to life in exciting new ways. He continued pushing the boundaries of vérité with director Danny Boyle on 28 Days Later, but their collaboration on Slumdog Millionaire remains their most striking and impressive to date. This is a film that feels alive thanks to Mantle’s active, aggressive camera, and it serves the story and characters tremendously well.

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15 'The Aviator' (2004)

What Should Have Won: 'The Aviator'

The Aviator is the kind of movie you get when one of the greatest film historians of all time also happens to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. In telling the story of Howard Hughes, director Martin Scorsese and cinematographer Robert Richardson decided to capture each era of Hughes’ life in the manner in which films were made during that particular period, recreating the look of early bipack color films as well as three-strip Technicolor. This is nirvana for cinephile nerds, and remains a stunning achievement to this day.

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14 'Road to Perdition' (2002)

What Should Have Won: 'Road to Perdition'

Road to Perdition is a film of shadows, which is appropriate given the subject matter. Legendary cinematographer Conrad L. Hall showcases his masterful touch throughout what would be his final film, and indeed his Oscar was awarded posthumously. What Hall does with light in this film is miraculous, and he and director Sam Mendes find a wonderful way to tell this story through the eyes of a child through motivated camera movements, shots, and blocking. While the film itself has been somewhat forgotten, Hall’s work here still stands tall 15 years later.

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13 'Life of Pi' (2012)

What Should Have Won: 'Skyfall'

Digital filmmaking made huge strides in the 2010s, and director Ang Lee’s work with cinematographer Claudio Miranda on Life of Pi is a brilliant example of seamlessly weaving together practical actors and sets with digital characters and backgrounds. The result is truly stunning, especially when contrasted with other greenscreen-heavy films. Miranda’s use of light makes Pi’s time at sea look and feel tactile and real, while at the same time sort of surreal—in keeping with the story itself. In hindsight, Life of Pi was a touchstone in digital cinematography and holds up far better than many other CG-heavy films made today. And yet, it was up against a stacked category that year, which included some of Janusz Kaminski’s best work in Lincoln and Roger Deakins’ stunning digitally-shot Skyfall.

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12 'Dune'

Who Should Have Won: 'Dune'

Few directors can effectively use darkness quite as well as Greig Fraser, who has previously worked on films like Zero Dark Thirty, Foxcatcher, Lion, Rogue One, and The Batman. But Fraser has arguably never been better than in his work on Denis Villeneuve's Dune, and thanks to his work here, it truly feels like we're on the desert planet of Arrakis, a stark, desolate planet that contains beauty within.

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11 'Inception' (2010)

What Should Have Won: 'The Social Network'

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has a knack for keeping the magic of his movies secret, and indeed as audiences witnessed Inception’s mind-bending practical effects cinematographer Wally Pfister’s work became all the more impressive. The very specific movements and visuals needed to create these dreamscapes in practical environments necessitated a tremendous level of skill, and Pfister more than rose to the challenge.

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10 'Roma' (2018)

What Should Have Won: 'Roma'

Director Alfonso Cuarón had initially planned on reteaming with his Oscar-winning Gravity cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on Roma (and indeed dedicated his Oscar win to "Chivo"), but Lubezki was forced to depart the ambitious drama due to scheduling conflicts. That's when Cuarón stepped in, bringing his own vision to life in stunning detail. The cinematography in Roma is groundbreaking in that Cuarón relegates the camera to the corner or a room or the side of a wall, and forces the audience to witness the events as an objective observer. There are no grand camera movements to speak of, and yet Cuarón's camera placement and shot composition is extremely precise. Every decision made here was in service of the story—it's in crisp 4K black-and-white to evoke a memory without nostalgia—and the result is a truly mesmerizing piece of work.

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9 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring' (2001)

What Should Have Won: 'The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'

The late, great Andrew Lesnie was responsible for crafting the world of Middle-earth as we know it, and it all began with The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. The richness of Lesnie’s frame oozed off the screen to envelope audiences into this fantasy world, but he never overshadowed the characters at hand—especially with Fellowship. This is a crowning achievement in the history of cinema, and it’s a shame that Lesnie left us all too soon as the guy no doubt had plenty more greatness to share with the world.

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8 'La La Land' (2016)

What Should Have Won: 'Moonlight'

In the Great La La Land Wars of 2016, I feel we didn’t discuss cinematographer Linus Sandgren’s work nearly enough. Everyone was focused so much on the Best Picture battle, but Sandgren offered up the best work of his career thus far in the context of Damien Chazelle’s musical. His use of color in particular is tremendous, not to mention that Astaire/Rogers-esque number shot at Magic Hour that feels at once transcendent and incredibly real. Musicals are about movement, and Sandgren’s camera whirls around the film’s lovers as if it’s a character unto itself.

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7 'Birdman' (2014)

What Should Have Won: 'Birdman'

As the only cinematographer to win the Best Cinematography Oscar three times in a row, Emmanuel Lubezki has solidified his place in Oscar history—but it’s also entirely deserving. Whatever you think of Birdman itself, Lubezki’s achievement in making the film look like a single continuous take is tremendous, and while this technique has been done before, there’s nobody else like Chivo.

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6 'The Revenant' (2015)

What Should Have Won: 'The Revenant'

But in the battle between Lubezki’s Alejandro G. Iñárritu films, I give a slight edge to The Revenant here for its tremendous use of natural light. That’s no easy task, especially in the locations used for this film, but Lubezki makes it work beautifully to result in haunting image after haunting image. The danger of the wild comes to life wonderfully through Lubezki’s lens, and you really feel the visceral quality of the filmmaking seep through the screen.

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5 'Oppenheimer' (2023)

What Should Have Won: 'Oppenheimer'

Hoyte van Hoytema's fourth collaboration with Christopher Nolan is also their best, as Oppenheimer asks this story of J. Robert Oppenheimer to be equally as grand in the smaller moments as it is in creating a bomb that could potentially destroy the world. The shots of the bomb blowing up are tremendously shot, showing the beauty in destruction, and the simple ways that Hoytema and Nolan show the pressure going on within Oppenheimer's head are jarring. Whereas their previous work together, like Dunkirk, Tenet, and Interstellar, focus on the grandiose, Oppenheimer is much more low-key, yet still feels as massive as Nolan's other films. And after his work with Jordan Peele on Nope, Hoytema can shoot a desert like no other, which he does here during the Los Alamos segments. With Oppenheimer, Hoytema proved he's one of the great cinematographers of our time, and he's only getting started.

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