The cinematography category is one of the most competitive each year as the craftsmanship becomes more unique and diverse. This year the nominees are made up previous winners, previous nominees and three newcomers.

The winner of the category will join recent winners Emmanuel Lubezki ("Gravity"), who is nominated this year, Claudio Miranda ("Life of Pi"), Robert Richardson ("Hugo") and Wally Pfister ("Inception").

Roger Deakins, "Unbroken": Deakins received his 12th nomination at the Academy awards for his work on Angelina Jolie's epic story about Louie Zamperini. The photographer has previously been nominated for his work on "Prisoners," "Skyfall," "True Grit," "The Reader," among other films. For "Unbroken" Deakins noted, for his work on the film, he shot on a digital camera because there were a lot of digital effects which helped for post-production. He added, because there were a lot of a running scenes, he always made sure the camera was with the actor. For his work on "Unbroken," Deakins has not won a single precursor award, and the film has not been a critical hit. Deakins is one of the most respected directors of photography in the business and is known for having never won a single Oscar. This year does not look like it will be his year, either.

Emmanuel Lubezki, "Birdman": The Mexican cinematographer garnered his seventh nomination just a year after having won his first Oscar for "Gravity." He has also been nominated for his work on "The Tree of Life," "Children of Men" and "The New World." Lubezki's work on "Birdman" has been the talk of awards season as the film is one whole long take. During the New York Film Festival, director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu stated that the reason the camera tricks worked was because all the lighting and blocking were predetermined, and the crew was mobile, and there was a reliance on available light. Lubezki's camera tricks have been rewarded throughout as he has won awards at the Critics' Choice, Los Angeles Film Critics and the Boston Film Critics. Because the film is nominated for Best Picture and Lubezki has virtually swept the precursor awards, expect the Mexican artist to win his second Oscar.

Dick Pope, "Mr. Turner": For his work on "Mr. Turner," Pope received his second nomination at the Academy Awards. He was previously nominated for the 2006 film "The Illusionist." Because the film is about an artist, Pope wanted to "invoke the spirit of what Turner and what the painter was looking at, or what he was seeing." The film is a wonder to look at as each frame looks like a nuanced painting. Pope has worked with director Mike Leigh on several occasions, but never have they created these type of images. "Mr. Turner" has not been the awards film many expected it to be as it only received below the line nominations and even the BAFTA awards shunned it from its prestigious Best British Film Award. Unless the film is able to sweep the below the line categories it is nominated for, it is unlikely Pope will win his first Oscar.

Robert Yeoman, "The Grand Budapest Hotel": After a number of collaborations with Wes Anderson, Yeoman received his first nomination for the Academy Awards. Anderson and Yeoman have collaborated on "The Darjeeling Limited," "Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Royal Tenenbaums." One of the unique qualities of Yeoman's cinematography in the film is it is shot in different aspect ratios to distinguish the time periods that the film takes place in. He said the movie was shot on 35mm film, but they used different lenses for each time period. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" has become the surprise hit of awards season as it was nominated for the most Academy Awards alongside "Birdman" and has won a number of awards where pundits least expected. If the film continues its surprising season, Yeoman could easily take home the Oscar.

Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski, "Ida": The biggest surprise in the category was Zal and Lenczewski's nominations. They received their first nomination for an Academy Award. The nomination was big shocker, because outside of European awards, "Ida" was only being considered for the foreign language film category. The nomination, however, comes as no surprise as the Academy has tried to nominate a least one black and white film in the past years. Last year, the Academy nominated "Nebraska," and in 2011 "The Artist" was nominated. The last time a foreign film was nominated in this category was in 2010 when "The White Ribbon" was nominated, and that film was also a black and white film. It is unlikely this film will win this category especially since it is not nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers, and that is an important precursor for this category. However, if "Ida" does win the foreign film category, then it could have a chance.

Predictions: Emmanuel Lubezki will likely win his second Oscar, but Robert Yeoman could surprise if "The Grand Budapest Hotel" wins all the below-the-line categories.