Dante Spinotti Biography

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DANTE SPINOTTI, A.S.C., A.I.C. (Director of Photography) is a well-respected and award-winning cinematographer whose work behind the camera has resulted in repeat collaborations with top directors around the world.

Spinotti has been nominated three times for the ASC Award from the American Society of Cinematographers for the films L.A. Confidential, The Insider and The Last of the Mohicans. He also received Academy Award® and British Academy Award nominations for his work on director Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential, and received the award for Best Cinematography for that film from the Los Angeles Film Critics. Spinotti later reunited with Hanson on the critically-acclaimed film Wonder Boys starring Michael Douglas. His work was also seen in director Brett Ratner's hit comedy The Family Man starring Nicolas Cage and most recently in Barry Levinson's Bandits starring Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton.

Born in Tolmezzo, Italy, Spinotti made his American bow with Michael Mann's Manhunter. For his work on Mann's most recent drama, The Insider, Spinotti received his second Academy Award® nomination, as well as a second Best Cinematography Award from the Los Angeles Film Critics and a second Silver Ribbon, awarded by Italian journalists for Best Cinematography. He and Mann also worked together on Heat and The Last of the Mohicans, for which he received a British Academy Award. Spinotti has also photographed multiple projects with such distinguished directors as Garry Marshall (The Other Sister, Frankie and Johnny, Beaches) and Michael Apted (Nell and Blink).

The cinematographer began his career in his native Italy where he has twice received Donatello Awards, for Ermanno Olmi's Legend of the Holy Drinker and The Secret of the Old Forest. In addition, he won the Golden Slate Award and a Donatello Award nomination for Lilliana Cavani's The Berlin Affair, as well as another Donatello nomination for Giacomo Battiato's Hearts and Armour. He received his first Silver Ribbon Award for his photography on Giuseppe Tornatore's The Star Maker. His early work in Italy includes such films as The Basileus Quartet and Sotto, Sotto.

Among his other motion picture credits: Roland Joffe's Goodbye Lover, Sam Raimi's The Quick and the Dead, Paul Schrader's The Comfort of Strangers, Herbert Ross' True Colors, and Bruce Beresford's Crimes of the Heart. Spinotti's work will next be seen in Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio.

Dante Spinotti Filmography

Director of Photography Credits

After the Sunset (2004)

Pinocchio (2002)

Red Dragon (2002)

Bandits (2001)

Wonder Boys (2000)

The Family Man (2000)

Goodbye Lover (1999)

The Insider (1999)

The Other Sister (1999)

L.A. Confidential (1997)