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8 Oscar Nominees That Deserve To Win (But Will Definitely Lose)

Anybody who's read The Hollywood Reporter's annual Brutally Honest Oscar Ballots series will know that Academy Awards aren't always handed out based on merit. In fact, it's rare to find one of THR's secret Oscar voters voting based on quality; more often than not, a vote will be cast based on what the voter's peers are doing or whether or not they feel a candidate 'deserves' it. Sometimes voters make their decisions without even having watched the movies.

5) Best Cinematography

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Will win: Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant

Should win: Edward Lachman, Carol, or Roger Deakins, Sicario

Best Cinematography Oscars, apparently, are like buses: you wait an age for one, then three come along all at once. At least, that’s how it’s shaping up to be for The Revenant‘s Emmanuel Lubezki, currently the favorite to win the Oscar for Best Cinematography, after already picking up the award last year for Birdman and the year before that for Gravity. Apparently there’s nobody else in the field who even deserves a look-in anymore.

Which isn’t true at all, obviously. While Lubezki prepares his third winner’s speech in as many years for his (frankly murky and only intermittently stellar) work on The Revenant, Roger Deakins and Edward Lachman – two veterans with 15 Oscar nominations and zero wins between them – stand to lose again. This despite Deakins doing some of his best work on Sicario and Lachman doing his best ever work on Carol, the hands-down best-looking movie in 2015.