'Tree of Life,' 'Boardwalk Empire' awarded by American Society of Cinematographers

Emmanuel Lubezki, Jonathan Freeman, Michael Weaver and Martin Ruhe claimed top honors in the four competitive categories at the 26th annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Outstanding Achievement Awards celebration Sunday at the Hollywood & Highland Grand Ballroom.

Emmanuel Lubezki was honored.

Lubezki won the ASC Award feature film award for "The Tree of Life." For the second straight year, Freeman earned top accolades in the one-hour television episodic category for HBO’s "Boardwalk Empire." Weaver was the inaugural recipient of the half-hour television episodic category for Showtime’s "Californication," and Ruhe won the TV movie/miniseries award for PBS’ "Page Eight."

The ASC Award for best feature was presented by award-winning actor Antonio Banderas who noted, “As I have found in my career on both sides of the camera, filmmaking at its core is about telling stories with images.”

Lubezki previously won the ASC Award in 2007 for "Children of Men," and was also nominated in 2000 for "Sleepy Hollow."

The other nominees in the feature film category were Guillaume Schiffman, AFC ("The Artist"), Jeff Cronenweth, ASC ("The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"), Robert Richardson, ASC ("Hugo") and Hoyte van Hoytema, FSF, NSC ("Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy").

Currently onscreen in "The Artist," James Cromwell and Penelope Ann Miller presented Freeman the Outstanding Achievement Award for "Boardwalk Empire" (“21″). This is the third ASC Award for Freeman, who has won for "Boardwalk Empire" (2011), and for the telefilm "Homeland Security" (2005). His accolades include additional ASC nominations for "Boardwalk Empire" (2011), "Prince Street" (1998), "Strange Justice" (2000) and "Taken" (2003).