The more you know about the Academy Awards, the better.
By the numbers
Pounds juggled by actors for their nominated roles:
— Russell Crowe to play Jeffrey Wigand in “The Insider” — gained 38 pounds.
— Denzel Washington to play Rubin Carter in “The Hurricane” — lost 40 pounds.
— Kevin Spacey to play Lester Burnham in “American Beauty” — lost 16 pounds.
Getting to know them — the cinematographers
CONRAD HALL (“American Beauty”): The son of “Mutiny on the Bounty” co-author James Norman Hall. His resume includes “In Cold Blood,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Searching for Bobby Fischer” and “A Civil Action,” as well as the 1963 TV series “The Outer Limits.” He won his first Oscar for 1969’s “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
EMMANUEL LUBEZKI (“Sleepy Hollow”): Studied filmmaking in Mexico City, where he was born and raised. Was cinematographer for “Like Water for Chocolate,” “A Walk in the Clouds,” “The Birdcage” and “A Little Princess” (for which he earned an Oscar nomination). While filming “Hollow” at a site north of London, he used lights on 120-foot-tall cranes, prompting reports of UFO sightings by local residents.
ROGER PRATT (“The End of the Affair”): Worked with Richard Attenborough (“Shadowlands,” “In Love and War”) and Terry Gilliam (“Twelve Monkeys,” “Brazil”). He was cinematographer for Kenneth Branagh’s “Frank-enstein” and the 1989 “Batman,” as well as assistant camera on “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.” His motion picture acting debut? In “Twelve Monkeys,” he’s the man tying his shoe in the hotel.
ROBERT RICHARDSON (“Snow Falling on Cedars”): Studied at the University of Vermont and Rhode Island School of Design. He teamed with Oliver Stone on 11 works — from “Platoon” to “Nixon,” earning Oscar nominations for “Born on the Fourth of July” and “JFK,” for which he won. His resume also includes “The Horse Whisperer,” “Wag the Dog,” “Natural Born Killers” and “Casino.”
DANTE SPINOTTI (“The Insider”): Began his work in Italian television. His first gig in the States? Dino De Laurentiis asked him to work with director Michael Mann on “Manhunter.” His cinematographic stamp is on “L.A. Confidential,” “The Last of the Mohicans” and “Heat.”
The way it was
1938: First a major flood delayed the show for a week. Then, two of
the winners (Best Actor Spencer “Captains Courageous” Tracy, recovering from an operation; and Best Supporting Actress Alice “In Old Chicago” Brady, home with a broken ankle) didn’t show up. Then some stranger took to the stage to accept Brady’s statuette and was never seen again. And, finally, when Tracy’s Oscar was delivered, it was engraved to “Dick Tracy.”
