“While it’s important that we celebrate good work and celebrate artists in our industry, clearly that’s not the priority right now,” he says. “The priority is to support people who have lost [homes and livelihoods].
“Life is going to go on – we know that – and awards have to happen and they will happen. But the mood is the less we can be talking about it right now, the better. The more we can help people who need help, the better.”
Cinematographer Greig Fraser films a scene with Timothee Chalamet on the set of Dune. Credit: Warner Bros
But there is one honour that Fraser is happy to talk about.
The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts has announced he will receive the Byron Kennedy Award for his outstanding contribution to the screen industry. Overseen by director George Miller in honour of his late Mad Max producing partner, the award has been won by such talents as Jane Campion, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, John Clarke and Bruna Papandrea over the years.
“Greig Fraser is the latest in the succession of eminent Australian cinematographers who have made their mark on world cinema,” Miller says. “He is dauntless in his embrace of new technologies in the cause of his art and consistently brings a narratively powerful aesthetic to the work.”
The award reflects Fraser’s rise in Hollywood: shooting Zero Dark Thirty, Lion, which gave him his first Oscar nomination, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Vice, The Mandalorian, which won him an Emmy, The Batman, and The Creator, which he co-produced. When they are ready to shoot, he is likely to be working on The Batman Part II and Dune: Part Three.
Fraser calls the Byron Kennedy Award “an incredible honour”, especially given Miller’s long-time excellence as a filmmaker.
“My job is to stay in the shadows, put my head down, my bum up and make myself invisible but make my work stand out,” he says. “I’m going to be accepting with [great] gratitude.”
The award will be presented at the AACTA Awards on the Gold Coast on February 7.
But before then, the Oscar nominations will be announced on January 24 Australian time after two postponements because of the fires.
Fraser (crouching) on the set of Dune as director Denis Villeneuve looks on.
Australia’s best chances for a nomination are Fraser, Guy Pearce (The Brutalist) for best supporting actor and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail for best animated feature.
There are also hopes for Nicole Kidman (Babygirl), editors Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga) and the visual effects team for Better Man.
Fraser is playing down his chances.
“I think the history is against the idea of a nomination,” he says. “[I’m told] that if a first film has won an Oscar, a sequel won’t be nominated. The Lord of the Rings wasn’t. Avatar wasn’t.”
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But the fires that he calls apocalyptic, which have left him feeling his lungs are full of ash and concerned about what will happen until the multiple blazes are contained, have made the Oscars feel distant.
“Most people I know who have lost their homes still have each other,” he says. “You can’t replace life.”
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