Rome, May 27, 2021 – Il Locarno Film Festival 2021 has decided to pay tribute to one of the most esteemed Italian directors of photography, Dante Spinotti: on 12 August will receive the Leopard to career, which will add to the many other prizes already appearing on the shelves of the house.
Dante Spinotti, an award-winning career
Born in Tolmezzo, in the province of Udine, on 22 August 1943, Dante Spinotti began working in the world of cinema thanks to Italian productions. But the turning point came when producer Dino De Laurentiis called him to the United States. Here he signs the light of some of his most famous and celebrated works: for example the two films that earned him as many Oscar nominations, namely ‘LA Confidential’ (1997) and ‘Insider – Behind the Truth’ (1999), but also ‘The Last of the Mohicans’, ‘Heat – The Challenge’ and ‘Red Dragon’ (2002). Over the years he has also experimented with the superhero genre, for example in the case of ‘X-Men: Final Conflict’ (2006) and ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ (2018).
“An immense talent of cinematographic photography”
Giona A. Nazzaro, artistic director of the Locarno Film Festival, communicated the decision to award Dante Spinotti by saying: “He is a master of light and an Italian excellence. A true author of cinematographic photography. From Sergio Citti to Aldo Lado, passing through Salvatore Samperi and Liliana Cavani, Spinotti landed in Hollywood where working with Michael Mann has redefined the aesthetics of contemporary noir and beyond, making some of the most admired US films of recent decades. Artisan and artist, he never stopped experimenting working between the United States and Italy with very different directors and directors such as Sam Raimi and Ermanno Olmi, Giuseppe Tornatore and Barbra Streisand. At ease with psychological intimacy as well as with fantasy, he has also left his unmistakable mark on superhero films. Celebrating Dante Spinotti means paying homage to an immense talent in cinematographic photography, to an artist who has changed the way we perceive images on the big screen. Without Dante Spinotti’s immense contribution, cinema would be poorer, less beautiful. Celebrating Dante Spinotti is a joy and a privilege “.
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