At this year's Oscars, while everyone was fuming about the academy's lack of diversity, few bothered to notice an incredible achievement: Mexican cameraman Emmanuel Lubezki, also known by his nickname "Chivo," became the first person ever to win three Oscars in a row for Best Cinematography. (And one of only six people ever to three-peat.)
Lubezki was an Oscar nominee for Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" way back in 2000, but it was probably the 2001 road movie "Y Tu Mama Tambien" — made with his film-school buddy, director Alfonso Cuaron, largely in reaction to the Hollywood ways of working that chafed against them in making "Great Expectations" — that he began to come into his own.
This year's win for his work on "The Revenant" followed Oscars for "Birdman" and "Gravity," and it's startling when you consider just how different those three films are. "The Revenant" was shot in wide angle on remote locations in near Calgary in such bitter cold that you can see the actors' breath condense on the lens; "Birdman" mostly on indoor sets depicting the very confined space of backstage dressing rooms; and "Gravity" in zero-gravity Earth orbit, where Lubezki supervised virtual shots with the special effects team. John Seale, who shot Oscar nominee "Mad Max: Fury Road," has said of Lubezki, "He's making each film an identity in itself."
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