- Born
- Birth nameEmmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern
- Nickname
- Chivo
- Height5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
- Lubezki began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s. His first international production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks (1993), which followed the journey of a single twenty-dollar bill.
Lubezki is a frequent collaborator with fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. The two have been friends since they were teenagers and attended the same film school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Together they have worked on six motion pictures: Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991), A Little Princess (1995), Great Expectations (1998), And Your Mother Too (2001), Children of Men (2006), and Gravity (2013). His work with Cuarón on Children of Men (2006), has received universal acclaim. The film utilized a number of new technologies and distinctive techniques. The "roadside ambush" scene was shot in one extended take utilizing a special camera rig invented by Doggicam systems, developed from the company's Power Slide system. For the scene, a vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera. The windshield of the car was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including Lubezki, rode on the roof. Children of Men (2006) also features a seven-and-a-half-minute battle sequence composed of roughly five seamless edits.
Lubezki has been nominated for eight Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, winning three, for Gravity (2013), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014), and The Revenant (2015). He is the first cinematographer in history to win three consecutive Academy Awards.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Pedro Borges
- SpouseLauren Beth Strogoff(? - present) (2 children)
- ParentsRaquel Lubezki
- Frequently collaborates with Alfonso Cuaron, Alejandro Inarritu and Terrence Malick
- Frequently uses long shots.
- 2007 - Ranked #24 on EW's The 50 Smartest People in Hollywood.
- The first man to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography three years in a row, for his work on Gravity (2013), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) and The Revenant (2015). He is the seventh individual to win a three-peat in any Oscar category.
- In 2007, he was one of 11 Mexican Academy Award-nominees. The others were Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Guillermo Arriaga, Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo Navarro, Adriana Barraza, Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta, Fernando Cámara and Alex Rodríguez.
- Chivo's unprecedented three consecutive Oscar wins for cinematography (2014, 2015, 2016) was even more remarkable considering that these victories were replicated with three consecutive BAFTA awards for the very same films: Gravity (2013), Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014) and The Revenant (2015).
- Was personally thanked (as "Chivo") by Leonardo DiCaprio in his acceptance speech on winning the Best Actor Golden Globe Award for The Revenant (2015).
- [on The Tree of Life (2011)] The language of film is further and further away from the language of theater and is closer to music. It's abstract but still narrative. Everything feels less rehearsed. It's more experimental than classical.[2012]
- [on Terrence Malick] Working with Terry has changed my life. I'm a different parent, I'm a different husband, and I'm a different friend. I see nature in a different way since I started working with Terry. I have much more respect for things that I wasn't aware of as much. He is one of the most important teachers in my life. And I'm a much better cinematographer in helping directors in a much more comprehensive way.[2012]
- [on managing Sandra Bullock's physical performance in Gravity (2013)] We literally had puppeteers controlling her. I couldn't stand being in the rig for more than thirty seconds, and she would be up there for hours. Sandra is an athlete, an acrobat, a ballerina and a total Buddhist.
- [on The Tree of Life (2011)] The camera needed to capture that sense of freedom and joy and life you have when you're young. But it was very, very difficult, and it required a great camera operator and an incredible focus-puller and another person helping me expose as I moved through the rooms. If I hadn't done And Your Mother Too (2001), I would have been terrified about the difference in exposure between interior and exterior, about the direction of the lighting at certain moments, the overexposure from the windows. It took me a long time to get to that point where I could accept that. I had to be a more mature cinematographer so I could be less mature in my work.[2013]
- [on the 12-minute-long, single-take opening scene Gravity (2013)] I have to say something about that: Alfonso Cuarón tried to make the shot much longer! I felt a little bit like the inquisition, coming in and saying, 'Cuarón, this is too long.' It felt contrived, like we were pushing it. I don't like it when a movie becomes a series of 'tour de force' shots, and in a way, I was disappointed that with Children of Men (2006), people noticed that the car scene was one shot with no cuts. If people notice that, it's like they're noticing my trick, you know what I mean? I'm doing it so people will get immersed in the movie, not to show off. (...) Cuarón told me, 'I want to it be the most immersive movie we've ever done.' It was incredibly difficult to make. We wanted this movie to feel as naturalistic as possible, and that's really hard to do in CG. (...) If the audience starts to sense your trick, it's good to stop the trick at some point and start again. It's like erasing your tracks, so that the people cannot trace and follow you.[2013]
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