- Steven Soderbergh
Steven Andrew Soderbergh (born January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia) is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and Oscar-winning director
- Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins has established himself as a successful cinematographer in America and Britain. While growing up in Torquay as a young adolescent, Roger spent most of his time in and out of school focusing on his primary interest: painting. Several years later, Roger enrolled in the Bath School of Art and Design (in the city of Bath) – where he studied graphic design. While studying in Bath, Roger discovered his love of still photography.
- Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard (born 3 December, 1930) is a French filmmaker and one of the most influential members of the "Nouvelle Vague", or "French New Wave". Born to Franco-Swiss parents in Paris, he was educated in Nyon, Switzerland, later studying at the Lycée Rohmer, and the Sorbonne in Paris, where he studied anthropology. During his time at the Sorbonne, he became involved with the young group of filmmakers and film theorists that gave birth to the New Wave.
- Christopher Doyle
Christopher Doyle is an Australian-born cinematographer and member of the HKSC. Doyle has worked with Chinese directors like Wong Kar-wai (for which he has done the cinematography of all his movies but the first one), Zhang Yimou, Edward Yang, and Zhang Yuan. He directed a feature film, "Away with Words" (aka "Kujaku", aka "San tiao ren") set in Hong Kong and Okinawa, starring Tadanobu Asano and Mavis Xu.
- Haskell Wexler
Born in Chicago, Wexler attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year before joining the Merchant Marines. He stayed at sea for five years, became a second officer, then returned to Chicago where he spent ten years making documentary and educational films before moving to California in 1955.
- Guillermo Navarro
Guillermo Navarro (born 1955) is an Academy Award-winning Mexican cinematographer. He has worked in Hollywood since 1993 and is a frequent collaborator of Guillermo del Toro and Robert Rodriguez.
- Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm ("Wim") Wenders is a German film director, playwright, photographer, and producer. He was born in Düsseldorf.
- Michel Gondry
Michel Gondry, born May 8, 1963 (1964 according to some sources), is a French Academy Award winning screenwriter, film, commercial, and music video director noted for his inventive visual style and manipulation of mise en scène.
- Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (born November 14, 1951) is an internationally acclaimed Chinese filmmaker and one-time cinematographer. He made his directorial debut in 1987 with the film "Red Sorghum".
- Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond is a Hungarian-American cinematographer. He was born in Szeged, Hungary, and studied cinema at the State Academy of Theatre and Film Art in Budapest. Together with his friend and fellow student László Kovács, he filmed the events of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in Budapest and then smuggled the film out of the country shortly afterwards. In 1962 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
- Sven Nykvist
Sven Vilhem Nykvist (3 December 1922 - 20 September 2006) was a Swedish cinematographer. He worked on over 120 films, but is known especially for his work with director Ingmar Bergman. He won Academy Awards for his work on two Bergman films, "Cries and Whispers" ("Viskningar och rop") in 1973 and "Fanny and Alexander" ("Fanny och Alexander") in 1983. His work is generally noted for its naturalism and simplicity.
- Vittorio Storaro
Vittorio Storaro (born 24 June, 1940 in Rome, Italy) is a three-time Academy Award winning Italian cinematographer.
- Jonathan Demme
Jonathan Demme (born February 22 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an Academy Award winning American film director, producer and writer. Demme broke into feature film directing working for Roger Corman. His first mainstream feature "Melvin and Howard" caught the eye of Hollywood and he was signed to direct the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell vehicle "Swing Shift".
- Robert Elswit
Robert Elswit is an American cinematographer. Some of the notable films he has worked on include: *Syriana (2005) *Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005) *Punch-Drunk Love (2002) *Magnolia (1999) *Boogie Nights (1997) *Hard Eight (1996)
- Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor. He received widespread recognition when he was cast as the lead in Roman Polanski's "The Pianist" (2002). The role won him an Academy Award for Best Actor, the youngest actor ever to win the award.
- Conrad Hall
Conrad L. Hall (June 21, 1926 - January 4, 2003) was a top-billed Hollywood cinematographer and three-time Academy Award-winner. Born in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia, he was the son of writer James Norman Hall and Sarah (Lala) Winchester Hall, who was part-Polynesian. Hall attended the University of Southern California intending to study journalism but drifted instead to the university's cinema school, from which he graduated in 1949.
- Caleb Deschanel
Caleb Deschanel (born September 21, 1944) is an American cinematographer. Joseph Caleb Deschanel was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to a French father and an American mother, who raised him in her Quaker religion. He went to Severn School for high school. He attended Johns Hopkins University from 1962 to 1966, where he met Walter Murch, with whom he staged "happenings" including a memorable one where Murch simply sat down and ate an apple for an audience.
- Mario Bava
Mario Bava (July 31 1914 - April 27 1980) was an Italian director and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the golden age of Italian horror films.
- Robert Richardson
Robert Bridge Richardson (born August 27, 1955 in Hyannis, Massachusetts) is an American cinematographer. He has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, for his work on "JFK" and "The Aviator". According to rumor, Quentin Tarantino persuaded him to work on "Kill Bill" by sending him a Valentine's Day bouquet.
- Barry Sonnenfeld
American film maker Barry Sonnenfeld (born New York City, April 1 1953) worked as cinematographer for the Coen Brothers, then later he directed and produced big budget films such as "Men in Black". On the 20 April 2007 episode of "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson," Barry Sonnenfeld said that, when he directs, he sits on a saddle. He also admits to vomiting at least once during shooting of his films.
- Gregg Toland
Gregg Toland was a highly influential American cinematographer, noted for his innovative use of lighting and techniques such as deep focus, an example of which can be found in his work on Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane". During the 1930s Toland was one of the most sought after cinematographers after becoming the youngest cameraman in Hollywood. Over a seven-year span (1936–1942), he was nominated five times for the "Best Cinematography" Oscar, …
- Gordon Willis
Gordon Willis (born May 28, 1931 in Queens, New York, United States) is a highly respected Hollywood cinematographer best known for his work on the "The Godfather" series, and on Woody Allen's "Annie Hall" and "Manhattan". Willis is famed for his penchant at photographing in extremely dark conditions, an approach which earned him the nickname "The Prince of Darkness", a moniker attributed to him by his friend Conrad Hall.
- Louis Malle
Louis Malle (October 30 1932 - November 23 1995) was an Academy Award nominated French film director, working in both French and English.
- Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan, OC (born July 19, 1960) is a critically acclaimed Canadian-Armenian film maker. His work often explores themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy or other power structures. Stylistically, Egoyan's films often follow non-linear plot-structures, in which events are placed out of sequence in order to elicit specific emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information.
- Emmanuel Lubezki
Emmanuel Lubezki (born Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern 1964, in Mexico City) is an award-winning Mexican cinematographer, known for his groundbreaking techniques and characteristic style. His nickname is "Chivo" and he was born into a Jewish family.
- Santosh Sivan
Santosh Sivan (born in Trivandrum, Kerala) is an Indian cinematographer and film director.
- John Toll
John Toll is a Cleveland-born American cinematographer. In 1978 he worked on his first film as camera operator, "Norma Rae". He won back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Cinematography in 1994 and 1995, for the movies "Legends of the Fall" and "Braveheart". He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his work on "The Thin Red Line" in 1998.
- Alain Resnais
Alain Resnais is a French film director whose early works are often grouped within the New Wave or Nouvelle Vague film movement. Although he has had a long and fruitful career, Resnais is best known internationally for three of his early works: "Night and Fog" (1955), "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (1959), and "L'Année Dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad)" (1961).
- Wally Pfister
Wally Pfister is an American cinematographer who is best known for his nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2005 for "Batman Begins". Pfister has also been the cinematographer for "Memento", "Insomnia", "The Italian Job", and "The Prestige"
- Michael Ballhaus
Michael Ballhaus (born 5 August 1935, Eichelsdorf, Lower Franconia, Bavaria, Germany) is a German cinematographer. Ballhaus first came to prominence with his work for Rainer Werner Fassbinder, including "The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant" (1972), "Satan's Brew" and "Chinese Roulette" (both 1976). He has also worked on many American films, including "Baby It's You" (1983) for John Sayles; "After Hours" (1985), …
- Freddie Francis
Frederick William (Freddie) Francis (22 December 1917 - 17 March 2007) was an English cinematographer and film director. He died at age 89 as the result of the lingering effects of a stroke, after a long and distinguished career in the cinema. He achieved his greatest successes as a cinematographer, including winning two Academy Awards, for "Sons and Lovers" and "Glory".
- Rodrigo Prieto
Rodrigo Prieto (born November, 1965 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican cinematographer. His grandfather was mayor of Mexico City and leader of the Chamber of Deputies of Mexico, but was later persecuted by the country's ruler because of political differences. The grandfather escaped with his family to Texas and then to Los Angeles. There, Prieto's father would spend most of his childhood.
- Darius Khondji
Darius Khondji (born 21 October, 1955 in Tehran, Iran) is an Iranian-French cinematographer.
- Nicolas Roeg
Nicolas Jack Roeg, born on August 15, 1928 in London, England is an internationally-known cinematographer and film director. Contributing to the visual look of "Lawrence of Arabia" and Roger Corman's "The Masque of the Red Death", and co-directing "Performance", he would later become the guiding force behind such landmark films as "Don't Look Now", "Walkabout" and "The Man Who Fell to Earth", which starred David Bowie.
- Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco is an Academy Award-nominated Mexican film director, screenwriter and producer. He is the son of Alfredo Cuarón, a cardiologist who worked for the United Nations' IAEA sector for many years. He has three siblings, Alfredo, Carlos and Cristina; and two half sisters, Christina and Elisa.
- James Wong Howe
James Wong Howe (August 28, 1899 - July 12, 1976) is considered one of the greatest cinematographers in movie history. He has over 130 films to his credit. A master at the use of shadow, he was one of the first to use deep-focus cinematography, photography in which both foreground and distant planes remain in focus. During the 1930s and 1940s he was considered one of the most sought after cinematographers in Hollywood.
- John Bailey
John Bailey (cinematographer) (born 10 August 1942 in Moberly, Montana) is an award-winning American cinematographer and film director. He is married to film editor, Carol Littleton.
- Doug Liman
Doug Liman (born 1965) is an American film director and producer. Liman began making short films while still in junior high school and studied at International Center of Photography in New York City. While attending Brown University, he helped to co-found the student-run cable television station and served as its first station manager. Liman attended the graduate program at University of Southern California, where he was tapped to helm his first project in 1993, …
- Tom Tykwer
Tom Tykwer (born May 23, 1965 in Wuppertal, Germany) is a German film director best known internationally for directing "Run Lola Run" (1998). Tykwer was fascinated by film from an early age. He started making amateur Super 8 films at the age of eleven and later helped out at a local arthouse cinema to see more movies, including those he was too young to buy tickets for.
- Michael Chapman
Michael Chapman (b. New York City, November 21, 1935) is an acclaimed American cinematographer whose prominence owes most to his innovative work of the 1970s and 1980s. He began his career as a camera operator, distinguishing himself on Steven Spielberg's "Jaws". As a cinematographer, he became famous for his two collaborations with Martin Scorsese, "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull".