Lubezki won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Cuarón's "Gravity", a thriller set in outer space. The film was praised for the way it combined two shots through digital backgrounds of space to create the illusion of scenes done in a single shot. Lubezki won his second Academy Award for Best Cinematography in the following year for his work on Alejandro González Iñárritu's "Birdman". The film used a similar technique from "Gravity", being very unusual in the way the entire movie was shot so as to appear to be photographed in one continuous take. Lubezki won the award again in 2015 for Iñárritu's "The Revenant", becoming a milestone for his third consecutive win and for being the first cinematographer to do so. The film was shot entirely in the wilderness during a cold season, minimizing the amount of CGI and using only natural lighting. It was an extremely difficult process that required a limited amount of time to shoot each scene, which delayed the production, causing budget overruns and changes of locations for proper settings. However, "The Revenant" earned over $500 million at the box office and received critical acclaim, with much praise for the film's atmospheric tone and realism.