Oscar 2016: Cinematography Nominees–Roger Deakins, Sicario

Deakins’ nomination for Sicario represents his 13th nod, and no previous wins.

The unflappable Brit is blase about the whole affair. “I’ve got plenty to come, I hope,” he told Variety.

For “Sicario,” Deakins’ second film with director Denis Villeneuve, captures the harsh, brutal light of Mexico’s Chihuahua Desert was key.

While the film was shot digitally with the Arri Alexa, for one sequence, depicting a raid on an underground tunnel used to smuggle drugs, Deakins used two different night-vision attachments employed by the military, one an infrared thermal system.

“It was almost ridiculous how little light I was using, but I didn’t want to go too far and make the image look too good, because, naturalistically, it wouldn’t work.”