Javier Aguirresarobe Zubía (born 10 October 1948) is a

Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...

Spanish cinematographer. After working primarily in Spanish movies during the 1980s and 1990s, he gained international recognition for his work on the 2001s film '' The Others''. From there, he worked mostly in Hollywood productions, ranging across multiple genres. He also developed collaborations with some directors, with

Chris Weitz Christopher John Weitz (; born November 30, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He is best known for his work with his brother Paul on the comedy films '' American Pie'' and '' About a Boy''; the latter earned ...

being his most frequent, working together since '' The Twilight Saga: New Moon''.

Early life and education

Javier Aguirresarobe Zubía was born in

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

Guipúzcoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantique ...

, Basque Country, Spain, on 10 October 1948. He has an older brother who was an industrial photographer, whom he used to help in the lab as a teenager, and this sparked his passion for photography. After earning a Diploma in Optics, He moved to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

to study journalism, and worked at various newspapers before deciding to change tack. He studied cinematography at the Official School of Cinematography, which has close links to the Spanish film industry. Only the top nine students in the entrance exam were admitted to the cinematography course. The students used

35mm film 35 mm may refer to: Film * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film 35 mm film is a film gauge used in filmmaking, and the film standard. In motion pictures that record on ...

Career

In 1983, Aguirresarobe's first work as cinematographer was for "a very small movie", '' La Muerte de Mikel'' (''The Death of Mikel''), which turned out to be a success at the

box office A box office or ticket office is a place where ticket (admission), tickets are sold to the public for admission to an event. Patrons may perform the transaction at a countertop, through a hole in a wall or window, or at a Wicket gate, wicket. ...

. He has mostly worked alone, but once worked with Spanish cinematographer

Luis Cuadrado Luis Cuadrado Encinar (8 July 1934 – 18 January 1980) was a Spanish cinematographer. He became especially known for his work on the 1973 film ''The Spirit of the Beehive''. Early life and education Luis Cuadrado Encinar was born on 8 July 193 ...

(''

The Spirit of the Beehive ''The Spirit of the Beehive'' () is a 1973 Spanish drama film directed and co-written by Víctor Erice. The film was Erice's feature directorial debut and is considered a masterpiece of Spanish cinema. The film, set in a small town in post-Civil ...

''). He first attracted international attention with the 1997 film '' Secrets of the Heart'', and even more in 2001 with '' The Others'', directed by

Alejandro Amenábar Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born 31 March 1972) is a Chilean-Spanish film director, screenwriter and composer. He has won nine Goya Awards—including Best Director for his 2001 film '' The Others''—and two European Film Awards amon ...

and starring

Nicole Kidman Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian and American actress and producer. Known for Nicole Kidman on screen and stage, her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world ...

. Aguirresarobe was cinematographer for the 2015 feature film ''

Goosebumps ''Goosebumps'' is a series of children's horror novels written by American author R. L. Stine. The protagonists in these stories are teens or pre-teens who find themselves in frightening circumstances, often involving the supernatural, the p ...

''. Aguirresarobe has worked with Spanish directors such as

Imanol Uribe Imanol Uribe (born 28 February 1950) is a Basque Spanish screenwriter and film director. He won the Goya Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for the 1994 thriller '' Running Out of Time''. Biography Born in San Salvador on 28 February ...

Montxo Armendáriz Montxo Armendariz (born as Juan Ramón Armendariz Barrios; 27 January 1949 in Olleta, Navarra, Spain)Torres, ''Diccionario Espasa Cine Español'' p. 83 is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. His film ''Las cartas de Alou'' won at the San ...

Pedro Almodóvar Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (; born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and author. His films are distinguished by Melodrama (film genre), melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular c ...

Julio Médem Julio Medem Lafont (born 21 October 1958) is a Basque film director, producer, editor, and screenwriter. Biography Medem was born on 21 October 1958 in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Spain and showed an interest in movies since childhood, when ...

, and

Fernando Trueba Fernando Rodríguez Trueba (born 18 January 1955), known as Fernando Trueba, is a Spanish filmmaker, writer, producer and book editor. Career Between 1974 and 1979, Trueba worked as a film critic for Spain's leading daily newspaper '' El Paí ...

, and internationally,

Miloš Forman Jan Tomáš "Miloš" Forman (; ; 18 February 1932 – 13 April 2018) was a Czech Americans, Czech-American film film director, director, screenwriter, actor, and professor who rose to fame in his native Czechoslovakia before emigrating to the Uni ...

John Hillcoat John Hillcoat (born 14 August 1961) is an Australian film director, screenwriter, and music video director. His early work includes the 1988 prison film '' Ghosts... of the Civil Dead'', as well as music videos for bands such as Siouxsie and t ...

, and

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

. Aguirresarobe worked as cinematographer for the film adaptation of ''

New Moon In astronomy, the new moon is the first lunar phase, when the Moon and Sun have the same ecliptic longitude. At this phase, the lunar disk is not visible to the naked eye, except when it is silhouetted against the Sun during a solar eclipse. ...

'', released in 2009, and on the ''

Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

'' film series.

Filmography

Feature film

Awards and nominations

In 2004, he won the Spanish National Photography Award. In 2009, Aguirresarobe was one of two recipients to be awarded the Universal Basque Prize by the

Lehendakari The President of the Basque Government (, ), usually known in the Basque language as the Lehendakari (, ), is the head of government of the Basque Autonomous Community. The lehendakari leads the executive branch of the regional government. T ...

(the Basque president) "in recognition of their endeavours to disseminate the image of the Basque Country outside its frontiers in the seat of the

Lehendakaritza Lehendakaritza or the President's Office is the department of the Basque Government responsible for the affairs of the ''lehendakari'' and issues like communication, open government, foreign affairs and peace. This department is led by the Presiden ...

". In 2012 Aguirresarobe was honoured with membership of the

American Society of Cinematographers The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), founded in Hollywood in 1919, is a cultural, educational, and professional organization that is neither a labor union nor a guild. The society was organized to advance the science and art of cinem ...

on the recommendation of Steven Poster,

Julio Macat Julio Macat, A.S.C. (born June 20, 1957) is an Argentine-American cinematographer. He is known for serving as cinematographer on the first three instalments of the ''Home Alone'' franchise. Early life Born in Rosario, Santa Fe, Argentina, Macat ...

, and

Rodrigo Prieto Rodrigo Prieto Stambaugh, American Society of Cinematographers, ASC, AMC (born November 23, 1965), is a Mexican cinematographer and film director. He has collaborated with Martin Scorsese and Alejandro González Iñárritu, among other promine ...

Goya Awards The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards. They are presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. The first ceremony was held in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Ar ...

Sitges Film Festival SITGES - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia () is an annual film festival held in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain. It specializes in fantasy film, fantasy, Horror film, horror and Cult film, cult films. Established in 1968, the festiva ...

BAFTA Awards The British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs or BAFTA Awards, is an annual film award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) to honour the best Cinema of the United Kingdom, British and Worl ...

San Diego Film Critics Society The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is an organization of film reviewers from San Diego–based publications that was founded in 1997. Overview The San Diego Film Critics Society (SDFCS) is composed of print, television, radio and digit ...

Houston Film Critics Society The Houston Film Critics Society is a nonprofit organization, non-profit film criticism, film critic unincorporated voluntary organization in Houston, Texas, in the United States. The group presents an annual set of film awards for "extraordinary ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Aguirresarobe, Javier 1948 births Living people People from Eibar Basque artists Spanish cinematographers