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A visual history · Oscars

The winners who defined Cinematography (B&W).

30 ceremonies, 1937–1967. 24 different winners.

  1. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?Haskell Wexler
  2. Ship of FoolsErnest Laszlo
  3. Zorba the GreekWalter Lassally
  4. HudJames Wong Howe
  5. The Longest DayJean Bourgoin & Walter Wottitz
  6. The HustlerEugen Schüfftan
Years explored
1937–1967
Different winners
24
Category leader
Arthur C. Miller · 3
About this record

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White was first awarded in 1937, so it does not run the full 1929–2025 window.

It was awarded for the last time in 1967.

The Academy designated its cinematography award for black-and-white films from the 9th ceremony, and retired the split after the 39th, when colour had become the norm.

01 / The reigns

24 winners shaped this category.

The timeline turns the complete record into a sequence of reigns. Longer bands reveal sustained runs; color shows the credited distributor.

  1. 01
    Arthur C. Miller3 wins
  2. 02
    Joseph Ruttenberg3 wins
  3. 03
    James Wong Howe2 wins
  4. 04
    William C. Mellor2 wins
One band per year, because no winner has gone back-to-back in the years on record. Colored by distributor; scroll sideways for the full run. Outlined blocks are years the award was not presented.
Tony Gaudio'37
Karl Freund'38
Joseph Ruttenberg'39
Gregg Toland'40
George Barnes'41
Arthur C. Miller'42
Joseph Ruttenberg'43
Arthur C. Miller'44
Joseph LaShelle'45
Harry Stradling'46
Arthur C. Miller'47
Guy Green'48
William Daniels'49
Paul C. Vogel'50
Robert Krasker'51
William C. Mellor'52
Robert Surtees'53
Burnett Guffey'54
Boris Kaufman'55
James Wong Howe'56
Joseph Ruttenberg'57
'58not awarded
Sam Leavitt'59
William C. Mellor'60
Freddie Francis'61
Eugen Schüfftan'62
Jean Bourgoin & Walter Wottitz'63
James Wong Howe'64
Walter Lassally'65
Ernest Laszlo'66
Haskell Wexler'67

02 / The power map

Who stood behind the winners?

20th Century leads the recorded distributor credits with 8 wins. The full distribution shows whether power was concentrated or shared.

20th Century8 wins
Loew's Inc.3 wins
Paramount3 wins
Sony3 wins
United Artists3 wins
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer2 wins
Wins by distributor
  1. 20th Century827%
  2. Loew's Inc.310%
  3. Paramount310%
  4. Sony310%
  5. United Artists310%
  6. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer27%
  7. Other827%

03 / The near misses

The names that kept coming back without the ending they wanted.

Counting nominations in this category only, 1937–1967.

Most nominated, never won

  1. 01
    Charles Lang
    12 noms
  2. 02
    George Folsey
    6 noms
  3. 03
    Ernest Haller
    5 noms
  4. 04
    John F. Seitz
    5 noms
  5. 05
    Rudolph Maté
    4 noms
  6. 06
    Franz Planer
    3 noms

Most losses

  1. 01
    Charles Lang
    12L · 0W
  2. 02
    George Folsey
    6L · 0W
  3. 03
    Joseph LaShelle
    6L · 1W
  4. 04
    Ernest Haller
    5L · 0W
  5. 05
    James Wong Howe
    5L · 2W
  6. 06
    John F. Seitz
    5L · 0W

04 / The archive

Every year.
Every winner.

The complete reference behind the story. Open any year to see the rest of the field when nominee records are available.

YearWinnerDistributor
1967Haskell Wexler (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Joseph LaShelle (The Fortune Cookie)
  • Kenneth Higgins (Georgy Girl)
  • Marcel Grignon (Is Paris Burning?)
  • James Wong Howe (Seconds)
Warner Bros. Pictures
1966Ernest Laszlo (Ship of Fools)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Loyal Griggs (In Harm's Way)
  • Burnett Guffey (King Rat)
  • Conrad L. Hall (Morituri)
  • Robert Burks (A Patch of Blue)
Columbia Pictures Corporation
1965Walter Lassally (Zorba the Greek)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Philip H. Lathrop (The Americanization of Emily)
  • Milton Krasner (Fate Is the Hunter)
  • Joseph Biroc (Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte)
  • Gabriel Figueroa (The Night of the Iguana)
20th Century Fox/International Classics
1964James Wong Howe (Hud)unverified
beat 4 others
  • George Folsey (The Balcony)
  • Lucien Ballard (The Caretakers)
  • Ernest Haller (Lilies of the Field)
  • Milton Krasner (Love with the Proper Stranger)
Paramount Pictures
1963Jean Bourgoin & Walter Wottitz (The Longest Day)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Burnett Guffey (Birdman of Alcatraz)
  • Russell Harlan (To Kill a Mockingbird)
  • Ted D. McCord (Two for the Seesaw)
  • Ernest Haller (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?)
20th Century-Fox
1962Eugen Schüfftan (The Hustler)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Edward Colman (The Absent-Minded Professor)
  • Franz Planer (The Children's Hour)
  • Ernest Laszlo (Judgment at Nuremberg)
  • Daniel L. Fapp (One, Two, Three)
20th Century-Fox
1961Freddie Francis (Sons and Lovers)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Joseph LaShelle (The Apartment)
  • Charles Lang (The Facts of Life)
  • Ernest Laszlo (Inherit the Wind)
  • John L. Russell (Psycho)
20th Century Fox
1960William C. Mellor (The Diary of Anne Frank)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Sam Leavitt (Anatomy of a Murder)
  • Joseph LaShelle (Career)
  • Charles Lang (Some Like It Hot)
  • Harry Stradling (The Young Philadelphians)
20th Century-Fox
1959Sam Leavitt (The Defiant Ones)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Daniel L. Fapp (Desire Under the Elms)
  • Lionel Lindon (I Want to Live!)
  • Charles Lang (Separate Tables)
  • Joseph MacDonald (The Young Lions)
United Artists
1957Joseph Ruttenberg (Somebody Up There Likes Me)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Boris Kaufman (Baby Doll)
  • Harold Rosson (The Bad Seed)
  • Burnett Guffey (The Harder They Fall)
  • Walter Strenge (Stagecoach to Fury)
Lowe's Inc.
1956James Wong Howe (The Rose Tattoo)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Russell Harlan (Blackboard Jungle)
  • Arthur Arling (I'll Cry Tomorrow)
  • Joseph LaShelle (Marty)
  • Charles Lang (Queen Bee)
Paramount Pictures
1955Boris Kaufman (On the Waterfront)unverified
beat 4 others
  • John F. Warren (The Country Girl)
  • George Folsey (Executive Suite)
  • John F. Seitz (Rogue Cop)
  • Charles Lang (Sabrina)
Columbia Pictures
1954Burnett Guffey (From Here to Eternity)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Hal Mohr (The Four Poster)
  • Joseph Ruttenberg (Julius Caesar)
  • Joseph C. Brun (Martin Luther)
  • Franz Planer & Henri Alekan (Roman Holiday)
Columbia Pictures
1953Robert Surtees (The Bad and the Beautiful)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Russell Harlan (The Big Sky)
  • Joseph LaShelle (My Cousin Rachel)
  • Virgil Miller (Navajo)
  • Charles Lang (Sudden Fear)
Loew's Inc.
1952William C. Mellor (A Place in the Sun)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Franz Planer (Death of a Salesman)
  • Norbert Brodine (The Frogmen)
  • Robert Burks (Strangers on a Train)
  • Harry Stradling (A Streetcar Named Desire)
Paramount Pictures
1951Robert Krasker (The Third Man)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Milton Krasner (All About Eve)
  • Harold Rosson (The Asphalt Jungle)
  • Victor Milner (The Furies)
  • John F. Seitz (Sunset Boulevard)
British Lion Film Corporation/Selznick Releasing Organization
1950Paul C. Vogel (Battleground)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Franz Planer (Champion)
  • Joseph LaShelle (Come to the Stable)
  • Leo Tover (The Heiress)
  • Leon Shamroy (Prince of Foxes)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1949William Daniels (The Naked City)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Charles Lang (A Foreign Affair)
  • Nicholas Musuraca (I Remember Mama)
  • Ted McCord (Johnny Belinda)
  • Joseph August (Portrait of Jennie)
Universal-International
1948Guy Green (Great Expectations)unverified
beat 2 others
  • George Folsey (Green Dolphin Street)
  • Charles Lang (The Ghost and Mrs. Muir)
General Film Distributors Ltd.
1947Arthur C. Miller (Anna and the King of Siam)unverified
beat 1 other
  • George Folsey (The Green Years)
Twentieth Century Fox
1946Harry Stradling (The Picture of Dorian Gray)unverified
beat 4 others
  • Arthur C. Miller (The Keys of the Kingdom)
  • John F. Seitz (The Lost Weekend)
  • Ernest Haller (Mildred Pierce)
  • George Barnes (Spellbound)
Loew's Inc.
1945Joseph LaShelle (Laura)unverified
beat 9 others
  • John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity)
  • Sidney Wagner (Dragon Seed)
  • Joseph Ruttenberg (Gaslight)
  • Lionel Lindon (Going My Way)
  • Glen MacWilliams (Lifeboat)
  • Stanley Cortez & Lee Garmes (Since You Went Away)
  • Robert Surtees & Harold Rosson (Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo)
  • Charles Lang (The Uninvited)
  • George Folsey (The White Cliffs of Dover)
20th Century Fox
1944Arthur C. Miller (The Song of Bernadette)unverified
beat 9 others
  • James Wong Howe, Elmer Dyer & Charles A. Marshall (Air Force)
  • Arthur Edeson (Casablanca)
  • Tony Gaudio (Corvette K-225)
  • John F. Seitz (Five Graves to Cairo)
  • Harry Stradling (The Human Comedy)
  • Joseph Ruttenberg (Madame Curie)
  • James Wong Howe (The North Star)
  • Rudolph Maté (Sahara)
  • Charles Lang (So Proudly We Hail!)
20th Century Fox
1943Joseph Ruttenberg (Mrs. Miniver)unverified
beat 9 others
  • James Wong Howe (Kings Row)
  • Stanley Cortez (The Magnificent Ambersons)
  • Charles G. Clarke (Moontide)
  • Edward Cronjager (The Pied Piper)
  • Rudolph Maté (The Pride of the Yankees)
  • John J. Mescall (Take a Letter, Darling)
  • Ted Tetzlaff (The Talk of the Town)
  • Leon Shamroy (Ten Gentlemen from West Point)
  • Arthur C. Miller (This Above All)
Loew's Inc.
1942Arthur C. Miller (How Green Was My Valley)unverified
beat 9 others
  • Karl Freund (The Chocolate Soldier)
  • Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane)
  • Joseph Ruttenberg (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde)
  • Joseph Walker (Here Comes Mr. Jordan)
  • Leo Tover (Hold Back the Dawn)
  • Sol Polito (Sergeant York)
  • Edward Cronjager (Sun Valley Serenade)
  • Charles Lang (Sundown)
  • Rudolph Maté (That Hamilton Woman)
20th Century-Fox
1941George Barnes (Rebecca)unverified
beat 9 others
  • James Wong Howe (Abe Lincoln in Illinois)
  • Ernest Haller (All This, and Heaven Too)
  • Charles Lang (Arise, My Love)
  • Harold Rosson (Boom Town)
  • Rudolph Maté (Foreign Correspondent)
  • Tony Gaudio (The Letter)
  • Gregg Toland (The Long Voyage Home)
  • Joseph Valentine (Spring Parade)
  • Joseph Ruttenberg (Waterloo Bridge)
United Artists
1940Gregg Toland (Wuthering Heights)unverified
beat 1 other
  • Bert Glennon (Stagecoach)
United Artists
1939Joseph Ruttenberg (The Great Waltz)unverified
beat 10 others
  • James Wong Howe (Algiers)
  • Ernest Miller & Harry J. Wild (Army Girl)
  • Victor Milner (The Buccaneer)
  • Ernest Haller (Jezebel)
  • Joseph Valentine (Mad About Music)
  • Norbert Brodine (Merrily We Live)
  • J. Peverell Marley (Suez)
  • Robert De Grasse (Vivacious Lady)
  • Joseph Walker (You Can't Take It with You)
  • Leon Shamroy (The Young in Heart)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
1938Karl Freund (The Good Earth)unverified
beat 2 others
  • Gregg Toland (Dead End)
  • Joseph Valentine (Wings over Honolulu)
Loew's, Inc.
1937Tony Gaudio (Anthony Adverse)unverified
beat 2 others
  • Victor Milner (The General Died at Dawn)
  • George Folsey (The Gorgeous Hussy)
Warner Bros. Pictures