Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s "Amélie", shot by Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, best-shot film of 1998-2008

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Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie, shot by Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, has been named the best-shot film of 1998-2008 in a recent online poll conducted by American Cinematographer. "This is real honor for me, especially considering the other movies in this list," said Delbonnel. "These are some of the finest cinematographers, and I’m not sure I deserve to be among them, but I am very happy to be. They are all explorers." (More comments from Delbonnel and other Top 10 cinematographers will appear in AC’s August issue.)

The poll is a follow-up to one published in AC in March ’99 in honor of the ASC’s 80th anniversary; that vote covered the best-shot movies of 1894-1997.
For the new poll, AC asked subscribers to nominate 10 films released between 1998 and 2008 that they believed had the best cinematography. A final ballot listing the 50 most popular nominees was then posted on the ASC Web site, and the final vote was open to the public. More than 17,000 people around the world participated in the final vote. Here’s the Top 10, along with the dates of the issues wherein you can find our coverage of the productions:

- Amélie: Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, AFC (AC Sept. ’01)
- Children of Men: Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC (AC Dec. ’06)
- Saving Private Ryan: Janusz Kaminski (AC Aug. ’98)
- There Will Be Blood: Robert Elswit, ASC (AC Jan. ’08)
- No Country for Old Men: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (AC Oct. ’07)
- Fight Club: Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (AC Nov. ’99)
- The Dark Knight: Wally Pfister, ASC (AC July ’08)
- Road to Perdition: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC Aug. ’02)
- Cidade de Deus (City of God): César Charlone, ABC (AC Feb. ’03)
- American Beauty: Conrad L. Hall, ASC (AC March & June ’00)