American Cinematographer - August 2015 - 86

Clubhouse News

Left: Jo Willems, ASC, SBC. Right: Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (third from right) received this year's
Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens in Cinematography Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

Society Welcomes Willems
New active member Jo Willems,
ASC, SBC was born in Belgium in 1970 and
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August 2015

moved with his family to the Central African
Republic at the age of 14. There, he
attended a French school where he became
interested in photography and nurtured a
budding interest in cinema. In 1989,
Willems returned to Belgium to study filmmaking; one of his instructors was cinematographer Willy Stassen, current president of the Belgian Society of Cinematographers (SBC). Willems pursued postgraduate
studies at the London Film School and
began working in the industry as an electrician. Three years later, he landed his first
cinematography job on a short film.
He continued working on music
videos and commercials before beginning
an ongoing creative partnership with director David Slade; their collaborations have
included the features Hard Candy and 30
Days of Night. Willems has also enjoyed
multiple collaborations with director Francis
Lawrence, including the Hunger Games
movies Catching Fire and Mockingjay Part 1
and Part 2. Willems' feature credits also
include London, Confessions of a Shopaholic and Limitless.
Deakins Receives
Angenieux Award
Roger Deakins ASC, BSC was
presented with the Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens in Cinematography Award at the 2015
Cannes Film Festival. Thales Angenieux
American Cinematographer

President Pierre Andurand presented
Deakins with the award, an Optimo 45120mm zoom engraved with the cinematographer's name. Collaborators and
admirers who attended the ceremony
included directors Joel and Ethan Coen,
Denis Villeneuve and Agnieszka Holland;
actors Frances McDormand, Jake Gyllenhaal
and Irène Jacob; and cinematographers
Mike Eley, BSC and Richard Andry, AFC.
AFI Honors Deschanel
Caleb Deschanel, ASC received the
American Film Institute's Franklin J.
Schaffner Alumni Medal during the recent
AFI Life Achievement Award Gala in Hollywood. According to the AFI, this honor
"recognizes the extraordinary creative
talents of an AFI Conservatory alum who
embodies the qualities of filmmaker Franklin
Schaffner: talent, taste, dedication and
commitment to quality filmmaking." In
1969, Deschanel enrolled in the inaugural
class of the AFI Conservatory along with
fellow filmmakers and future Schaffner
recipients David Lynch and Terrence Malick.
Previous recipients also include cinematographers Wally Pfister, ASC, and Janusz
Kaminski.
●

Photo of Clubhouse by Isidore Mankofsky, ASC; lighting by Donald M. Morgan, ASC.
Jo Willems photo by Murray Close. Roger Deakins photo courtesy of Angenieux.

Board of Governors Elected
Richard Crudo has been re-elected
ASC president for the 2015-'16 term. The
other officers are Vice Presidents Owen
Roizman, Kees van Oostrum and Lowell
Peterson; Treasurer Matthew F. Leonetti;
Secretary Frederic Goodich; and Sergeantat-Arms Isidore Mankofsky.
Also elected to the Board of Governors were John Bailey, Bill Bennett,
Crudo, George Spiro Dibie, Richard
Edlund, Fred Elmes, Michael Goi, Victor
J. Kemper, Daryn Okada, Peterson,
Robert Primes, Roizman, Rodney Taylor,
Van Oostrum and Haskell Wexler. The
alternates are Mankofsky, Karl Walter
Lindenlaub, Kenneth Zunder, Francis
Kenny and John C. Flinn III.
"I am humbled to once again have
the opportunity to serve this great organization," said Crudo. "As we start to close in
on the ASC's 100th anniversary [in 2019],
we will continue to honor the intents of our
founders by protecting and promoting the
interests of the cinematographer. Our
members are the best people in the world at
what they do; by their efforts, the ASC will
remain the industry's standard bearers for
many decades to come."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 2015