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Australian cinematographer John Seale's first credits as camera operator include several films directed by fellow countryman Peter Weir, notably Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and Gallipoli (1981). When Weir moved to America, he invited Seale to join him; after handling the second-unit photography for the director's Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Seale was nominated for an Oscar for his work as director of photography for Weir's Witness (1985). He earned his second Oscar nomination for his vivid color camerawork on director Barry Levinson's Rain Main (1988). Seale made the crossover from photographer to director with the 1991 murder tale Til There Was You, which turned out to be an unfettered disappointment. Returning to cinematography, he had an unqualified triumph in 1996 with his work on The English Patient, for which he won an Oscar and a European Film Academy Award. In 1999, Seale again collaborated with Patient director Anthony Minghella on The Talented Mr. Ripley, lending his own distinctive touch to the film's Venetian setting.