Kovács , who shot the 1969 film '' Easy Rider '' for Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper , recommended Zsigmond to Fonda for his 1971 Western film '' The Hired Hand '' . Later that same year Zsigmond was hired by Robert Altman for his revisionist western film '' McCabe & Mrs. Miller '' , which became Zsigmond 's breakthrough film and marked his first time working on a major Hollywood production . Over the following decade Zsigmond became one of the most in-demand cinematographers in Hollywood . Some of the major films he shot in the 1970s include John Boorman 's '' Deliverance '' , Altman 's '' The Long Goodbye '' , Brian De Palma 's '' Obsession '' as well as Steven Spielberg 's '' The Sugarland Express '' and '' Close Encounters of the Third Kind '' , the latter of which won him the Academy Award for Best Cinematography at the 50th Academy Awards
50th Academy Awards
50th Academy Awards
Vilmos Zsigmond