Spanish cinematographer and filmmaker Néstor Almendros was BOTD in 1930. Born Néstor Almendros Cuyás in Barcelona, he moved to Cuba aged 18 to join his father, who had been exiled from Spain by General Franco’s regime. He moved to Rome to study filmmaking at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, returning to Cuba to make documentaries for the Castro regime. After his short films, Gente en la playa (People at the Beach) and La tumba francesa (The French Drum) were banned by government authorities, he moved to Paris, where he could live more openly as a gay man. He became the favourite cinematographer of filmmaker Éric Rohmer, photographing his feature films Ma nuit chez Maud (My Night With Maud), Claire’s Knee (Le Genou de Claire) and L’Amour, l’après-midi (Love In the Afternoon). He went on to work with most of the key figures of the French New Wave, including François Truffaut, Barbet Schroeder and Jean-Claude Brialy. He made a spectacular Hollywood debut in 1976 as chief cinematographer Terrence Malick’s Depression-era drama Days of Heaven. Abandoning studio photography in favour of natural light, his painterly compositions referenced the work of painters Johannes Vermeer, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. Significant production delays required Almendros to leave the production early, deputising Haskell Wexler to complete the film while he moved on to his next project. Released in 1978, Days of Heaven became one of the most praised films of the decade, winning Almendros (though, controversially, not Wexler) an Oscar for cinematography. He received further Oscar nominations for his work on Kramer vs Kramer and Sophie’s Choice, making a star of the young Meryl Streep. His next project, the softcore porn romance The Blue Lagoon, was commercially successful, though criticised for its voyeuristic treatment of the young (and mostly naked) Brooke Shields. In his later years, Almendros directed two documentaries about human rights abuses in Cuba, including 1984’s Mauvaise Conduite (Improper Conduct), focusing on Castro’s persecution of gay people. Intensely secretive about his sexuality, Almendros died in 1992 of an AIDS-related illness, aged 61. Now considered one of the 20th century’s greatest cinematographers, his much-admired use of “magic hour” photography on Days of Heaven has been widely imitated.