Vilmos Zsigmond

Vilmos Zsigmond (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wave movement. In 2003, he was voted as one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history by the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.

Over his career he became associated with many leading American directors, such as Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Brian De Palma, Michael Cimino and Woody Allen. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography for The Deer Hunter. He also won an Emmy Award for the HBO miniseries Stalin. The ASC also awarded him with their Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998.

Biography

Early life and education Zsigmond was born in Szeged, Hungary, the son of Bozena , an administrator, and Vilmos Zsigmond, a soccer player and coach. He became interested in photography at age 17 after an uncle had given him Művészi fényképezés (The Art of Light), a book of black-and-white photographs taken by Hungarian photographer , but under the Soviet-imposed government of the Hungarian People's Republic he was not allowed to study the subject because his family was considered bourgeois. He settled in Los Angeles and worked in photo labs as a technician and photographer. and the Second City satirical science fiction movie The Monitors.

New Hollywood Kovács, who shot the 1969 film Easy Rider for Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, recommended Zsigmond to Fonda for his 1971 Western film The Hired Hand.

Over the following decade, Zsigmond became one of the most in-demand cinematographers in Hollywood. He worked with Mark Rydell on Cinderella Liberty, The Rose, The River, and Intersection. He also worked with Woody Allen on Melinda and Melinda, Cassandra's Dream, and You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.

Vilmos' life and career was featured in No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos, a bio-documentary that aired on PBS's Independent Lens in 2009.

In 2011 Zsigmond co-founded the Global Cinematography Institute in Los Angeles, along with fellow cinematographer Yuri Neyman. The Institute provided an advanced cinematography educational program for postgraduate students and veteran filmmakers. 1999: American Society of Cinematographers 1999: Cinequest Film & Creativity Festival 2010: Manaki Brothers Film Festival 2014: Cannes Film Festival