Now that the Oscars are over, there’s one aspect of Sunday’s awards telecast that may have been lost on many of the viewers. One winner, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki aka “Chivo,” who acclaimed for multi-honored “The Revenant,” was not really a surprise.
You see, what Chivo did was something that occurs so rarely that it was nearly overlooked during the telecast.
Thousands of talented movie professionals have been winners throughout the Academy Awards 88-year history. However, only a handful of them have won three consecutive gold Oscar statuettes for their work.
Chivo is one of those hallowed five winners.
Historically, the leader with an astounding 12 awards is Walt Disney.
He won eight consecutive Oscars for Best Short Subject (Cartoon)1931-1939, then followed that up with four additional “Best Short Subject (Two-Reel)” awards, covering the years 1950-1953.
Composer Roger Edens has three Oscars that covered the “Best Original Score” for the classic films “Easter Parade,” “On the Town” and “Annie Get Your Gun,” from 1947 to 1950.
Visual effects supervisor Jim Rygiel and animation designer/supervisor Randall William Cook together took home three years of consecutive wins for the “Lord of the Ring’s Trilogy,” 2001-2003. So, it is not an easy task to win an Oscar, much less win the prized statuette for three years in a row.
Chivo, however, has broken new ground as a cinematographer, having won awards for three wildly differing projects. In them, he profoundly conceived of a new visual language for cinematic creation, while redefining the technology as needed to create and complete his vision for each film.
His Oscar vision in 2012 brought us “Gravity,” where his use of a revolutionary LED lighting system and the most advanced wire work ever seen to make us believe that Sandra Bullock was trapped alone in a faux Soyuz space capsule tumbling though space.
“Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” in 2013, is where his nearly seamless camera work is exemplified as he follows of actor Michael Keaton through the sidewalks of Times Square, in what appeared as if the entire film was shot in one long, continuous take.
Once again, in 2015’s “The Revenant,” Chivo redefines cinematic technology. This time, in the cold dead of winter, he chooses to only shoot during the “golden hour” just after dawn and just before sunset.
He defines a truly unique look with Arri’s Alexa65 camera recording a massive 6550×3100 pixel image at time of the day that taxes any camera’s ability to capture a properly exposed image, in an environment that both actors and crew said was one of the worst physical experiences of their careers.
In the last four years Chivo has conquered outer space, inner space and now survived the great outdoors. I wonder what he will have in store for us visually. But it really won’t matter where he goes next, because I know it will be a wild ride.
