A report by Paul René Roestad FNF, IMAGO President.
Photos by Paul René Roestad FNF and Valentina Valente.

During a celebration in Rome on Thursday 9th of January, Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC, was awarded the American Society of Cinematographers Certificate of Recognition, by the ASC President Kees van Oostrum ASC.
ASC President van Oostrum said in his speech that the reason for this prestigious recognition was Luciano Tovoli´s outstanding cinematography and visual artistry over decades, and for setting new and unprecedented standards of cinematographic creativity.

Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC receiving the ASC Certificate of Recognition from ASC President Kees van Oostrum ASC. Photo: Paul René Roestad FNF.

With a career spanning over 6 decades, Luciano Tovoli started as a cinematographer in 1968 with the feature film “Come l´amore”, directed by Enzo Muzli, and he has today 98 feature films to his credit, many of them internationally awarded, and although in his 84th year, he is still working daily and actively as a cinematographer.

He has worked with names like Michelangelo Antonioni, Francis Veber, Ettore Scola, Andrei Trakovsky, Dario Argento, Barbet Schroeder, Juan Luis Bunuel and Julie Taymor. Among his many extraordinary films of which many has seriously influenced generations of cinematographers and filmmakers, you find for instance “The Passenger”, “Suspiria” and “Titus”, just to mention a few.
And he has also worked as a producer and a director. His feature film “Il generale dell´armata morta” which Tovoli directed, was highly acclaimed, and was amongst others nominated for the prestigious Gold Hugo Award at the Chicago international film festival.

Luciano Tovoli is as we know, the founder of IMAGO, the International Federation of Cinematographers. In 1992, Luciano initiated a meeting in Cinecitta in Rome between central European Cinematographers Societies. This meeting resulted in the founding of IMAGO, with the initiating members AIC (Italy), BSC (UK), AFC (France) and BVK (Germany).
Luciano Tovoli became IMAGO´s first President, and he is still playing a central in IMAGO´s development.

After IMAGO was initiated, cinematographers around Europe who did not yet have a cinematographers society, started forming their own and new Societies, entirely so they could join the family of international cinematographers in IMAGO to discuss challenges, exchange experiences and develop their art in international collaboration.

In 1993, AEC (Spain), DFF (Denmark), AAC (Austria), SBC (Belgium), FSC (Finland), NSC (The Netherlands), FNF (Norway), and FSF (Sweden) joined as members of IMAGO.
As we all know, IMAGO today has moved to be fully international with 56 cinematographer´s Societies from all around the World´s corners as members, with a total of close to 5 000 international cinematographers being under IMAGO´s collaborative umbrella.

The impressive film camera museum at Cinecitta, Rome. From left Daniele Nannuzzi AIC, Kees van Ostrum ASC, Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC, Paul René Roestad FNF and Adolfo Bartoli AIC. Photo by Valentina Valente.

Kees van Oostrum ASC being presented the Honorary Membership of the AIC by Luciano Tovoli AIC ASC and the AIC Board.

 IMAGO was represented in Rome by IMAGO President Paul René Roestad FNF, and he thanked Luciano Tovoli for his foresight, his important idea and work in 1992 to form IMAGO so international cinematographers today can have a sturdy umbrella under which they can discuss important challenges and work together to solve them, an umbrella that grows in importance, influence and size every year.

The following day, AIC´s President and Board during a gathering at the Cinecitta Studios, awarded Kees van Ostrum with the Honorary AIC Membership.
In his speech, Luciano Tovoli underlined van Oostrums leadership in the ASC which have brought the society important steps forward, and not least for van Oostrum´s great and unprecedented effort to encourage international collaboration between cinematographers, an effort already bringing results of paramount importance. The ASC will join IMAGO as a member in 2020.