LOS ANGELES-Giuseppe Rotunno, A.S.C., A.I.C., will receive the International Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers at the 13th Annual A.S.C. Outstanding Achievement Awards, to be held here Feb. 21 at the Century Plaza Hotel.
Over the past 40-plus years, Rotunno has worked with some of the world’s great directors, including Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, John Huston, Mike Nichols and Robert Altman. His career as a DP began in Rome in 1954, when the cinematographer for Visconti’s Senso was killed in a car accident; Rotunno took his place, going on to shoot Visconti’s Rocco and his Brothers and Fellini’s Satyricon and Amarcord, among others.
In 1966, after shooting Huston’s The Bible … In The Beginning, Rotunno was nominated for membership in the A.S.C. by Leon Shamroy, A.S.C., and subsequently became one of the first foreign nationals to join the organization, which was founded in 1919 for the purpose of advancing the art and craft of cinematography.
Rotunno counts among his achievements other firsts: In 1987, he became one of the first DPs to shoot a narrative film in HDTV, Julia and Julia, starring Kathleen Turner, Gabriel Byrne and Sting; and two years later, he shot Leonardo’s Dream, one of the first films in Showscan, a 65mm, 60 fps format.
