Forget Go Big Red. For one Nebraskan on Sunday night, it was Go Big Gold.
Papillion resident Mauro Fiore won the Academy Award for cinematography Sunday night for his work on “Avatar,” director James Cameron's blockbuster about a war between earthlings and aliens on a distant moon.
The award was something of a surprise — last-minute prognosticators predicted that “The Hurt Locker” would win. And no one was more surprised than Fiore.
“I was convinced I wasn't going to win,” he told The World-Herald by phone just before entering the Governor's Ball after the show. “It made me very relaxed throughout the whole evening.”
When his name was read, a delighted Fiore leaped up and hugged his wife, Christine, a Nebraska native. Cameron, who was sitting in front of him, also jumped up and hugged him, saying, “You did it.”
“He was very happy,” Fiore said. “It was a very special moment.”
In his acceptance speech, Fiore called the award “an unbelievable honor.”
The Oscar winner, who was born in Italy, thanked Cameron and his parents, “who came to this country with four suitcases and a dream.” Later Sunday night he called them in Italy to thank them personally.
And in what surely was a rarity at an Oscar ceremony, he also thanked “everybody in Omaha” before lapsing into several Italian phrases.
He forgot, however, to thank his wife. He asked award presenter Sandra Bullock if he could return to the stage.
“It didn't happen,” he said, laughing.
Fiore came to this country at age 7 and was raised in Chicago's suburbs. He moved to Papillion after marrying Christine Vollmer in 2000. They met on the set of a movie shot in the Omaha area in 1997, “Love From Ground Zero.” Christine was the movie's costumer.
Sunday night, their three children — Olivia, 8, Tessa, 6, and Luca, 4 — called to congratulate Dad.
“They were all crying with joy,” he said. The kids were with their grandparents in Papillion after sending Dad off to Hollywood with a giant good luck card in the form of an “Avatar” mural on their basement wall.
Though Cameron handled cinematography on the digital, motion-capture segments of “Avatar,” Fiore was in charge of live-action scenes, all filmed in New Zealand.
“Avatar” was Fiore's 12th film as a director of photography and his first with Cameron. His previous films include “Tears of the Sun,” “Training Day” and “The Kingdom.”
He recently completed filming on the movie version of “The A Team,” and he'll begin work on “Real Steel,” starring Hugh Jackman, this summer in Detroit.
Contact the writer:
444-1269, bob.fischbach@owh.com
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