The Imago International Award for Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Cinematography
Rachel Morrison ASC
This is the first time this award has been given. It recognises the importance of advancing the industry and changing the visible face of the cinematographer.
IMAGO is very proud and pleased that Rachel Morrison ASC will accept the Imago International Award for Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Cinematography for her exceptional and beautiful work on both «Mudbound» and Black Panther.
When «Mudbound» was nominated for the Cinematography Oscar award, Rachel was first female DP ever to receive an Oscar nomination for Cinematography. Subsequently, Rachel shot Black Panther, the first Black Superhero film, a major studio production.
Both her Oscar nomination and work as cinematographer for Black Panther are ground-breaking major achievements for female DP’s in the history of cinema and cinematography.
She is a trailblazer who has brought about two watershed moments in the history of filmmaking, an inspirational role model.
Rachel Morrison began her career in television and her cinematography on the 2005 documentary Rikers High was nominated for an Emmy Award.
The 2007 independent film « Palo Alto» marked Morrison’s debut as the primary cinematographer on a feature film. Sound of My Voice premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, end then over the next years she photographed «Fruitvale Station», which premiered at Sundance in 2012 and 2013 respectively, as well as «Any Day Now» (2012), Some Girl(s) (2013) and «The Harvest» (2013). In 2014, she photographed »Cake» and in 2015 «Dope» that premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, making it Morrison’s seventh film to screen at the festival in six consecutive years.
At the 2013 Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards, Morrison was awarded the Kodak Vision Award for her work in cinematography and her collaboration with other women filmmakers. In 2017 she became a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.
In 2017 Morrison was the cinematographer for Dee Rees’s film «Mudbound». For her work on the film, Morrison became the first woman to win the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematographer, the first woman to be nominated for the feature category of the American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards, and the first woman ever nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Morrison served as cinematographer for Marvel’s «Black Panther» (2018), making her the first woman to shoot a superhero franchise film.
Her cinematographic language is empathetic and emotional, transcending genre borders and opening to the audiences the inner worlds of her film characters.
She has been outspoken about the issues she has faced in the industry and used Instagram platform to open a dialogue about shooting while pregnant or with little children. She shot «Against All Enemies» at eight months pregnant and has said that despite the common misconception, pregnancy is not “some kind of disability.”
Both her Oscar nomination and work as cinematographer for Black Panther are ground-breaking major achievements in the history of cinema and cinematography.
She is a trailblazer who has brought about two watershed moments in the history of filmmaking, an inspirational role model and advocate for female cinematographers who has already and will change the face of cinematography in the years to come.