Halyna Hutchins Now Honorary ASC Member
The cinematographer joins other motion-picture luminaries that include Thomas Edison, Walt Disney and the Apollo 11 astronauts.
Halyna Hutchins was awarded honorary ASC membership posthumously on November 14 in recognition of her work as a cinematographer. The award was announced by ASC President Stephen Lighthill, on behalf of the ASC Board of Governors, during a moving memorial service for Hutchins held at the American Film Institute (AFI) in Los Angeles. The news was simultaneously announced during a tribute to Hutchins held at the Camerimage festival in Torun, Poland, which was attended by ASC Vice President Amy Vincent, along with ASC members Lawrence Sher, Xavier Pérez Grobet and Alice Brooks.
Lighthill presented a commemorative membership plaque to her husband, Matt Hutchins, at the AFI event. Lighthill said, “on Halyna’s plaque are the words of the ASC motto: Loyalty, Progress, Artistry. In this moment, ‘loyalty’ is on our minds: loyalty to the memory of Halyna, loyalty to cinematographers world-wide and loyalty to our community.”
Halyn Hutchins was a student of Lighthill’s at the AFI, from which she graduated in 2015. She was tragically killed on Oct. 21 at the age of 42 on the set of the Western feature Rust while filming in New Mexico.
Other honorary members of the ASC include motion-picture camera and projection inventor Thomas Edison, motion-picture film pioneer George Eastman, animation innovator and studio head Walt Disney, and the three Apollo 11 astronauts who first filmed the earth from the surface of the moon: Neil A. Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
You’ll find the ASC’s initial statement on Hutchins’ death here.
And AC’s 2019 Rising Stars of Cinematography report featuring Hutchins here.
