For his short film
Cracker Bag he was nominated for Best Cinematography at the 2003
AFI Awards. For his work on
Lion, he won the
American Society of Cinematographers Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Theatrical Releases and
AACTA Award for Best Cinematography and received
Academy Award and
BAFTA Award nominations. Fraser shot
Rogue One on the
Arri Alexa 65 large format digital camera and
Panavision lenses from the 1970s, making it the first feature film shot entirely with the Alexa 65. Fraser said of working with the Alexa 65, "The images are sharper and have more resolution, and those things are an advantage, but for me it is about the depth of the image -- there is a three-dimensionality to it. Often the beauty came from the texture; we found that the camera excelled when we were filming something with texture; it really enhanced the quality of picture." Fraser returned to the
Star Wars franchise with the 2019 television series
The Mandalorian. In 2020, for his work on the series, Fraser won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (Half-Hour). For his work on
Dune he won his first
Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2022. Fraser said a feature of his work in that film was intentionally using simple compositions, "We tried to simplify the frames as much as we could. By doing that, we've been able to give the viewers that absorption of story and experience" and colour palette: "We tried quite hard to make sure that it all sat within a certain tone."
Style Starting on
Dune, Fraser has utilized variations of the
film-out process, whereby digitally-shot footage is first transferred to film, then re-scanned back into a digital format. Speaking to
Filmmaker in 2021, he explained, "What I found with this [film-out] process is that it allowed me to have a clear vision of something that should look more organic than digital, but less organic than film."
Critical reception Film critic
Glenn Kenny has praised Fraser's work in
The Batman and
Dune, saying they were a "sort of stunning magic trick". Writing for
RogerEbert.com,
Christy Lemire said of his cinematography in
Dune: "There's both a gauziness and a heft to his imagery. His use of shadow and silhouette is masterful, and does so much to convey a sense of foreboding and tension." Fellow cinematographer and
Academy Award winner Roger Deakins praised Fraser's work on
The Batman as "extraordinary", and called Fraser's and the film's omission from being nominated in the category at the
95th Academy Awards due to the Academy's tendency to avoid
superhero films "snobbery." Critic Susan Wloszczyna praised his work on
Lion, saying it was "visually poetic". ==Personal life==