Oscar-winning cinematographer, editor on the “magic” and pain behind making ‘Oppenheimer’

Oppenheimer was the big winner at Sunday night’s 96th Academy Awards, and two of the film’s seven wins were from, respectively, its cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema and its editor Jennifer Lame.

Backstage following his win, van Hoytema said he literally had a one-of-a-kind view of the Oscar-winning picture in the making. “You know, I watch through the viewfinder which is a huge privilege,” he expresses.

“The first performance of the actor you see optically through it, through the viewfinder of a camera,” he continues. “So the judgment about that picture comes very much down to that moment and … when their magic happens, you know, you’re kind of the first witness of that, which is extremely exciting.”

For Lame, some of the most challenging aspects of the film were having to trim some scenes of Oscar winner Cillian Murphy‘s “mesmerizing” performance as J. Robert Oppenheimer.

“Some of my favorite scenes are when he’s vulnerable,” Lame said backstage. “Like in Truman’s office, when he actually wants to take a stand and he’s bumbling, and he’s acting like you can’t make a sentence which you’ve never seen him do before,” Lame explains.

“And I had a way longer cut of that scene, or when he’s in the Casey Affleck scene and he’s really bad at lying,” she continues. “So yeah, there were so many of my favorite scenes with Cillian that I did have to cut down. Because he’s fantastic.”