Since the first Academy Awards in 1929, there have been more than 600 nominees in the Best Cinematography category. The cinematographer, who is responsible for a film’s lighting, framing, and camerawork, ranks second highest on a film’s call sheet, after the director, and that fact might help explain why which is historically the largest boys’ club in movie-making history.
Of those 600 nominees, three have been women.
One of them is Mandy Walker, nominated this year for her vibrant historical re-enactments and her dreamy, fantasy camerawork in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis.” Walker, whose credits include Luhrmann’s “Shattered Glass,” “Hidden Figures,” “Australia” and “Mulan,” follows Rachel Morrison (2017’s “Mudbound”) and Ari Wegner (2021’s “The Power of the Dog”). as the only women ever nominated. Best Cinematography remains the only award, other than the male acting awards, never won by a woman at the Oscars.
Walker could break that 95-year streak on March 12. In December, won the AACTA (Australian Academy of Film and Television Arts) for the film, the first time a woman won for cinematography in the cinema at the “Australian Oscars”. In her speech, Walker emphasized that she hoped her victory would serve to open the door for many more women in the camera department.
During a lively conversation for TheWrap “Elvis” Screening Series, Walker joined producer, costume designer, and production designer Catherine Martin and producer Gail Berman to talk about the hard work, craftsmanship, determination (and “girl power”) that went into making the dynamic, colorful biopic.
Speaking about the gender disparity in her field, Walker noted that Luhrmann deserves credit for hiring her to shoot a feature film in the first place, 15 years ago. (The two first collaborated when Walker photographed Chanel Commercial No. 5 by Luhrmann starring Nicole Kidman in 2004).
“I have to defend Baz,” he said. “Because when I filmed (2008) ‘Australia,’ no woman had ever filmed a film that big and on that scale. He was the first to give me that opportunity. So he was a pioneer in that sense. Now I feel like everyone is more aware that there aren’t many women in the camera department. I think it’s still only 6 percent of PDs that are women. So, yeah, for me it’s an exciting time where we’re doing good work and being recognized for it.”
Walker also praised Luhrmann’s collaborative nature as a filmmaker. That even extended to Luhrmann’s insistence that Walker was present at Austin Butler’s audition for the lead role.
“Baz will involve us all very soon,” he said. “And I was at Austin’s audition with my little camera going around, looking at him from angles, and then jumping up to Baz and saying, ‘Look, in this three-quarter shot, he really does look like Elvis, and when he moves this way in that this lens looks good on him. And already exploring the visual language of how we were going to film it.”
During the conversation, Walker explained the meticulous research he did for the production, which included placing his film cameras inside the television cameras used during Presley’s concerts, so that the angles and lines of the eyes were perfectly accurate. .
But he also described the otherworldly quality of the film, as the camera often floats in midair, guiding us through Elvis’ life courtesy of the unreliable narrator and compulsive liar, Colonel Tom Parker (played by Tom Hanks). ).
Walker explained, “Very early on, Baz told me, ‘There are three languages for the camera in this movie: the camera has to dance with Elvis; we have to fly with it when it is flying; and then the drama is heavy or the emotions are high, we would slow down and be very observant and graceful. The challenge was how to integrate that into the film so that it never got skipped. That was something I worked on for a long time.”
As of 2022, Walker is on the Academy’s Board of Governors, mentoring young women and people of color in the art of filmmaking. “Personally, I’m trying really hard to encourage women to work at my job,” she told TheWrap’s Brenda Gazzar last year.
For more from Walker, as well as Catherine Martin and Gail Berman, check out TheWrap’s “Elvis” Screening Series Full Q&A Video. here.