Sopan Deb/ The New York Times
It turns out the 14th time is the charm.
After repeatedly being nominated for an Oscar for an expansive catalog of cinematography that includes films like Martin Scorsese’s “Kundun” and Frank Darabont’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” Roger Deakins finally won his first statue. His work on the sequel “Blade Runner 2049” was what finally did the trick for a career dating back to the 1970s.
Mr. Deakins was lighthearted and reserved in his acceptance speech, joking that he had “better say something or else they’ll give me a jet ski,” referring to the host Jimmy Kimmel’s prize for the shortest speech of the night.
Here is his speech:
Hey, thank you, thank you. I guess I better say something or else they’ll give me a jet ski and I don’t see myself on a jet ski somehow. I want to share this with my wife of 27 years, James, whatever. I want to share it with Andrew and Broderick and Denis Villeneuve. You know, I — I really love my job. I’ve been doing it a long time, as you can see. But you know, one of the reasons I really love it is the people I work with, both in front of the camera and behind the camera. Some of my crew on “Blade Runner” I’ve been working with for over 30 years. And others — others I met for the first time in Budapest and this is for every one of them. Every one of them. In fact, I’ve got to say it’s for us because it was a team. It was really a team effort. Thank you. Thank you very much.