The MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography is a craft award given to both the artist as well as the cinematographer/director of photography of the music video.
From 1984 to 2006, the award's full name was Best Cinematography in a Video. After a brief absence in 2007, the category acquired its current, shortened name in 2008.
The biggest winner is Harris Savides with three wins. Pascal Lebègue, Daniel Pearl, Mark Plummer, and Scott Cunningham follow with two wins each. The most nominated director of photography is Daniel Pearl with nine nominations, followed by Jeff Cronenweth with seven. Beyoncé has won the most awards in this category with 4 wins. Madonna's videos have received the most nominations with ten. Ryan Lewis is also the only performer to have won a Moonman in this category for his work as a director of photography on the video for "Can't Hold Us" in 2013. Jared Leto ("Hurricane") is the only other performer to have been nominated for his work in this category.
Recipients
1980s
{| class="wikitable sortable"
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| "Every Breath You Take"
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| "The Boys of Summer"
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| "The Sun Always Shines on T.V."
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| "C'est la Vie"
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| "We'll Be Together"
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| "Express Yourself"
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| align="center"|
|}
1990s
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col" style="width:5px;"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:220px;"| Winner(s)
! scope="col" style="width:270px;"| Work
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Nominees
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref.
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| "Vogue"
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| "Wicked Game (Concept)"
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| align="center"|
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| and Daniel Pearl
| "November Rain"
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| align="center"|
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| "Rain"
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| align="center"|
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| "Everybody Hurts"
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| align="center"|
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| and Michael Trim
| "Love Is Strong"
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| align="center"|
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| "Tonight, Tonight"
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| align="center"|
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| "Virtual Insanity"
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| align="center"|
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| "Criminal"
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| align="center"|
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| "The Dope Show"
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| align="center"|
|}
2000s
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col" style="width:5px;"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:220px;"| Winner(s)
! scope="col" style="width:270px;"| Work
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Nominees
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref.
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| "Do Something"
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| "Weapon of Choice"
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| align="center"|
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| "We Are All Made of Stars"
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| align="center"|
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| "Hurt"
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| align="center"|
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| "99 Problems"
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| align="center"|
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| "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"
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| "You're Beautiful"
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| "Conquest"
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| "21 Guns"
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2010s
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col" style="width:5px;"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:220px;"| Winner(s)
! scope="col" style="width:270px;"| Work
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Nominees
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref.
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| "Empire State of Mind"
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| align="center"|
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| "Rolling in the Deep"
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| align="center"|
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| "Bad Girls"
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| align="center"|
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| , Jason Koenig and Mego Lin
| "Can't Hold Us"
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| align="center"|
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| and Jackson Hunt
| "Pretty Hurts"
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| align="center"|
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| "Never Catch Me"
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| align="center"|
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| "Formation"
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| align="center"|
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| "HUMBLE."
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| align="center"|
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| "Apeshit"
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| align="center"|
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| Scott Cunningham
| "Señorita"
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| align="center"|
|}
2020s
{| class="wikitable sortable"
! scope="col" style="width:5px;"| Year
! scope="col" style="width:220px;"| Winner(s)
! scope="col" style="width:270px;"| Work
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Nominees
! scope="col" class="unsortable"| Ref.
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! scope="row"|
| Michael Merriman
| "Rain on Me"
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| align="center"|
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| Benoit Soler, Malik H. Sayeed, Mohammaed Atta Ahmed, Santiago Gonzalez and Ryan Helfant
| "Brown Skin Girl"
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| align="center"|
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| Nikita Kuzmenko
| "As It Was"
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| align="center"|
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! scope="row"|
| Rina Yang
| "Anti-Hero"
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| align="center"|
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| Anatol Trofimov
| "We Can't Be Friends (Wait for Your Love)"
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| align="center"|
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| Xiaolong Liu
| "Not Like Us"
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| align="center"|
|}
Cinematographer Statistics
Multiple wins
;3 wins
- Harris Savides
;2 wins
- Daniel Pearl
- Malik Sayeed
- Mark Plummer
- Pascal Lebègue
- Scott Cunningham
Multiple nominations
;9 nominations
- Daniel Pearl
;7 nominations
- Jeff Cronenweth
;6 nominations
- Christopher Probst
- Martin Coppen
;5 nominations
- Harris Savides
- Thomas Kloss
;4 nominations
- Scott Cunningham
;3 nominations
- Adam Newport-Berra
- Benoît Debie
- Dariusz Wolski
- John Perez
- Karsten "Crash" Gopinath
- Malik Sayeed
- Mark Plummer
- Nikita Kuzmenko
- Pascal Lebègue
;2 nominations
- André Chemetoff
- Checco Varese
- David Devlin
- David Johnson
- Declan Quinn
- Elias Talbot
- Evan Prosofsky
- James Hawkinson
- John Mathieson
- Jonathan Sela
- Ken Barrows
- Larkin Seiple
- Marco Mazzei
- Michael Bernard
- Mike Southon
- Oliver Stapleton
- Pau Castejón
- Paul Laufer
- Peter Mackay
- Rina Yang
- Rob Witt
- Rolf Kestermann
- Ryan Helfant
- Santiago Gonzalez
- Shawn Kim
- Stephen Keith-Roach
- Toby Phillips
- Tony Mitchell
- Xiaolong Liu
Artist Statistics
Multiple wins
;4 wins
- Beyoncé
;3 wins
- Jay-Z
- Kendrick Lamar
- Madonna
;2 wins
- Ariana Grande
- Green Day
Multiple nominations
;10 nominations
- Madonna
;8 nominations
- Kendrick Lamar
;7 nominations
- Beyoncé
;6 nominations
- Ariana Grande
- Ed Sheeran
;5 nominations
- Lady Gaga
- Taylor Swift
;4 nominations
- Adele
- Eminem
;3 nominations
- Aerosmith
- Billie Eilish
- Camila Cabello
- Coldplay
- Green Day
- Jay-Z
- Katy Perry
- Lana Del Rey
- Michael Jackson
- Missy Elliott
- Rihanna
- Thirty Seconds to Mars
;2 nominations
- Alicia Keys
- Bryan Adams
- David Bowie
- Don Henley
- En Vogue
- Eric Clapton
- George Michael
- Metallica
- Miley Cyrus
- No Doubt
- Olivia Rodrigo
- Radiohead
- Red Hot Chili Peppers
- R.E.M.
- Shawn Mendes
- Steve Winwood
- Sting
- Stone Temple Pilots
- The Smashing Pumpkins
- The White Stripes
- U2
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs