The International Cinematographers Guild (ICG, IATSE Local 600) presented eight aspiring DPs with 2024 Emerging Cinematographer Awards (ECA) during a ceremony, screening and reception held on Sunday (9/29) in the Television Academy’s Wolf Theatre at the Saban Media Center in North Hollywood.
Also during the ECA proceedings, Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC accepted the Distinguished Filmmaker Award. Prieto is a four-time Best Cinematography Oscar nominee–for Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, and Martin Scorsese’s Silence, The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon.
In his opening awards ceremony remarks, Stephen Poster, ASC–who co-chairs the Guild’s ECA committee with Jimmy Matlosz–estimated that over the 26 years of the ECA, more than 200 up-and-coming lensers have garnered invaluable exposure and recognition early on in their careers. Submissions are open to Local 600 members who are not yet classified as DPs, and a panel of established ICG members from across the country assess the short film entries. The competition has intensified over the past two-plus decades. This year’s eight honorees and their short films were selected from 118 submissions.
The class of 2024 ECA honorees are:
–Dominic Bartolone for the short film Sweet Santa Barbara Brown
–Adam Carboni, INCOMPLETE
–Matthew Halla, The Unreachable Star
–Jessica Hershatter, Pirandello on Broadway
–Allen Ho, Iron Lung
–Nick Mahar, Sands of Fate
–Dylan Trivette, Bearing Witness: A Name & A Voice
–Andrew Trost, Bloom
These emerging cinematographers benefited from more than just the Sunday showcase in North Hollywood. The day prior at ICG headquarters in Hollywood, the eight ECA winners received practical career advice from a pair of DP agents–Bill Dispoto of Dattner Dispoto and Associates, and Steve Jacobs of WTA. The agents offered career counsel, discussed agent and DP strategies, standards for professional behavior and answered assorted questions from the ECA honorees.
Rodrigo Prieto
The Distinguished Filmmaker Award adds to assorted honors that Prieto has garnered over his career. Besides the four Oscar nods, for example, he has been nominated for five ASC Awards in the feature film category–for Brokeback Mountain, Silence, The Irishman, Killers of the Flower Moon, and director Julie Taymor’s Frida.
Prieto’s body of feature work additionally includes Barbie, The Wolf of Wall Street, Argo, 8 Mile, Babel and 21 Grams.
He has also expanded his horizons as his feature directorial debut, Pedro Páramo, is slated to debut on Netflix in November. Prieto is no stranger to directing, having helmed the notable short film Likeness. He directed and shot the Taylor Swift music video, “Fortnight,” and is on the commercial/branded content directorial roster of production company Little Minx.
In accepting the Distinguished Filmmaker Award, Prieto acknowledged that on the surface in would seem a bit incongruous for an established DP like him to receive an honor at an Emerging Cinematographers event. But Prieto noted that he still very much feels like “an emerging cinematographer,” observing that “every project is scary,” always containing the element of the unknown–yet he embraces whatever challenges that brings.
He recalled starting out at the age of 22 when he got his first commercial as a DP while going to film school. Prieto remembers vividly how exciting it was to see his name on the slate next to that of the director.
Prieto went on to say how proud he is to an ICG member, recollecting the warm welcome he received upon joining the union–including from Poster. Prieto encouraged new talent, including the ECA honorees, to continue to express themselves creatively and to share their filmmaking vision “through your cameras, with your lenses and through your hearts.”
M. David Mullen
The ECA weekend actually got started on Friday (9/27) with the presentation of the ASC Mentor Award to M. David Mullen, ASC at the ASC Clubhouse in Hollywood.
Mullen has earned two ASC Awards and three Emmy Awards for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, as well as two IFP Independent Spirit Awards nominations for Twin Falls Idaho and Northfolk. He has built the visual world for films and television shows with enduring legacies, including Jennifer’s Body, The Good Wife and Westworld.
Mullen prioritizes skill sharing and mentorship for emerging cinematographers, and co-authored both the 3rd edition of the classic textbook “Cinematography” by Kris Malkiewicz and the 11th edition of “The American Cinematographer Manual.”
Underscoring the importance of the ASC Mentor Award to Mullen, said Poster, was that the cinematographer flew in for the day from Paris to accept the honor. He then immediately went back to Paris to continue shooting Amy Sherman-Palladino’s Étoile, a series about ballet. Mullen’s track record with Sherman-Palladino includes the aforementioned The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
