Spinotti will receive the 2012 ASC Lifetime Achievement Award, with additional ASC honors going to Wages for the Career Achievement in Television Award, Kenny with the Presidents Award, and Godfrey with the ASC Bud Stone Award of Distinction.
Spinotti’s U.S. career began in 1986 with his breakthrough visuals on Manhunter with director Michael Mann, and continues today with his current release, Tower Heist with Brett Ratner. He has compiled more than 60 venerable credits to date, collaborating with such ground-breaking directors as Bruce Beresford, Garry Marshall, and Michael Apted. His work with Curtis Hanson on L.A. Confidential in 1997 led to his first Oscar nomination, followed by a second nomination for The Insider in 2000, on which he re-teamed with Mann. Both films also earned Spinotti ASC Award nominations, with an additional nod from ASC for The Last of the Mohicans. His body of work includes such memorable films as Crimes of the Heart, Beaches, Frankie and Johnny, Heat, Wonder Boys, Red Dragon, Pinocchio, X-Men: The Last Stand, Public Enemies, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Berlin Affair, Fotografando Patrizia, Il segreto del bosco vecchio, The Legend of the Holy Drinker, and The Star Maker.
“What Dante Spinotti brings to every movie he photographs is youthful exuberance mixed with the wisdom of experience,” says ASC President Michael Goi. “His visual style is infused with the kind of playful experimentation and consummate craft that results in iconic imagery. He is a model for why great cinematographers are truly timeless."
Wages has been nominated for two Emmy Awards and eight ASC Awards, winning twice. One of his first major narrative credits was Resting Place, the first of many Hallmark Hall of Fame productions Wages would photograph. In 1988, Gore Vidal’s Lincoln was nominated for an ASC Award, with additional nods for Caroline?, Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase, I’ll Fly Away (pilot), The Moving of Sophia Myles, and Miss Lettie and Me. Wages won consecutive ASC Awards in 1997 and 1998 for Riders of the Purple Sage and Buffalo Soldiers. The latter also earned an Emmy nomination, as did Into the West, in 2006. Wages became a member of the ASC in 1992, and counts more than 50 narrative television projects, commercials and documentaries among his credits.
"Bill and Francis are fabulously talented cinematographers who also happen to be terrific human beings,” says ASC Awards Committee Chairman Richard Crudo. “Their work in features and television speaks for itself but perhaps more importantly, they're treasured members of our organization."