Dante Spinotti ASC, AIC
photo by Andrzej Lew

It is our great pleasure and joy to announce that Plus Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Award 2009 will be granted to an outstanding cinematographer Dante Spinotti ASC, AIC. The Award will be presented at the 17th edition of the festival which will be held from 28 November till 5th December. The organizers of Plus Camerimage will pay a tribute to this innovative and visionary artist. A retrospective review of Spinotti’s films will present some of his greatest achievements.


Daniel Day-Lewis, The Last of the Mohicans

Dante Spinotti was born on 24th August 1943 in Tolmezzo, in the northeastern region of Italy. At the age of about 11 he started doing still photography with a camera that his uncle gave him. He began taking photographs and making enlargements in his private darkroom. When he was 17, Spinotti went to Kenya to work on documentaries and newsreels with his uncle, a cinematographer and director. Upon his return to Italy, about a year later, he was working on commercials and then became staff cameraman for the State Italian Television, RAI which he left to become a freelance in 1980. Then, in early 80s, Spinotti shot his first features for cinema in Italy, and in 1986 he worked on Choke Canyon - his first feature in US. When producer Dino De Laurentis hired him to photograph Michael Mann’s Manhunter and Spinotti soon became one of the most appreciated cinematographers in Hollywood. Spinotti later continued to work with Mann also on The Last of the Mohicans, Heat, The Insider and most recently Public Enemies starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale. He worked with many other reputable directors including Michael Apted, Bruce Beresford, Brett Ratner, Garry Marshall, Curtis Hanson, Giuseppe Tornatore, Ermanno Olmi, Roberto Benigni, Roland Joffe, Barry Levinson, Lina Wertmuller or Marcel Langenegger.


Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys

Dante Spinotti is a well-respected cinematographer whose extraordinary and artful work behind the camera has resulted in numerous nominations and awards. He has won two Italian Donatello Awards, for The Legend of the Holy Drinker in 1988 and for The Secret of the Old Woods in 1993. Additionally, in 2002, he was also nominated to the same award for his photography on Roberto Begnini’s Pinocchio. For his work on The Insider, directed by Michael Mann, and L.A. Confidential, directed by Curtis Hanson, he was recognized by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscar nominations. These two films as well as Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans were also nominated to the American Society of Cinematographers Awards, BAFTA Awards, and British Society of Cinematographers Awards. Spinotti also won the L.A. Film Critics Association Award two times with L.A. Confidential and The Insider.

Dante Spinotti's next project is The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader which is planned to be released in 2010.


Al Pacino and Russell Crowe The Insider


Selected filmography:

• Public Enemies (2009) dir. Michael Mann
  
• X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) dir. Brett Ratner
  
• Pinocchio (2002) dir. Roberto Benigni
  
• Red Dragon (2002) dir. Brett Ratner
  
• Wonder Boys (2000) dir. Curtis Hanson
  
• The Insider (1999) dir. Michael Mann
  
• L.A. Confidential (1997) dir. Curtis Hanson
  
• Heat (1995) dir. Michael Mann
  
• The Star Maker (L' uomo delle stelle) (1995) dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
  
• Nell (1994) dir. Michael Apted
  
• The Last of the Mohicans (1992) dir. Michael Mann
  
• Frankie and Johnny (1991) dir. Garry Marshall
  
• Hudson Hawk (1991) dir. Michael Lehmann
  
• Beaches (1988) dir. Garry Marshall
  
• The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore) (1988) dir. Ermanno Olmi
  
• Crimes of the Heart (1986) dir. Bruce Beresford
  
• Manhunter (1986) dir. Michael Mann
  
• The Berlin Affair (1985) dir. Liliana Cavani
  
• Softly, Softly (Sotto... sotto) (1984) dir. Lina Wertmüller
  
• Basileus Quartet (Il Quartetto Basileus) (1983) dir. Fabio Carpi