Best Cinematographers Of All Time
by petroskaz | created - 22 Jan 2016 | updated - 30 Apr 2020 | Public
1. Emmanuel Lubezki
Cinematographer | Children of Men
Lubezki began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s. His first international production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks (1993), which followed the journey of a single twenty-dollar bill.
Lubezki is a frequent collaborator with fellow Mexican filmmaker ...
2. Robert Richardson
Cinematographer | Kill Bill: Vol. 1
Robert Richardson has won three Academy Awards and earned seven Academy Award nominations for his cinematography. His work on director Oliver Stone's JFK earned him his first Oscar. His second and third came with The Aviator and Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese. These two films also garnered him ...
3. Conrad L. Hall
Cinematographer | Road to Perdition
Born in Tahiti, the son of writer James Norman Hall, author of "Mutiny on the Bounty," Conrad Hall studied filmmaking at USC. He and two classmates formed a production company and sold a project to a local television station. Hall's company branched out into making industrial films and TV ...
4. Roger Deakins
Cinematographer | Blade Runner 2049
Roger Deakins is an English cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers, Sam Mendes, and Denis Villeneuve.
He is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers.
Deakins' first feature film in America as cinematographer was Mountains of the Moon (...
5. Rodrigo Prieto
Cinematographer | Brokeback Mountain
Rodrigo Prieto is a Mexican cinematographer. He is best known for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Babel (2006), Argo (2012), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and Silence (2016).
He also worked with Alejandro González Iñárritu on the acclaimed Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), and Biutiful (2010).
...
6. Dante Spinotti
Cinematographer | L.A. Confidential
Dante Spinotti was born in Tolmezzo, Udine, in the northeastern Italian Region of Friuli. He began his career at RAI (Italian TV), before that he spent lot of time in Kenia as cinematographer for his uncle. In 1985, producer Dino De Laurentiis offered him a chance to work in USA for the first time ...
7. Robert Elswit
Cinematographer | There Will Be Blood
Robert Elswit is an American cinematographer. He is best known for Boogie Nights (1997), Magnolia (1999), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), There Will Be Blood (2007), Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011), Inherent Vice (2014), and Nightcrawler (2014).
Elswit frequently works with director ...
8. Allen Daviau
Cinematographer | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Allen Daviau was born on June 14, 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for E.T. (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Bugsy (1991). He died on April 15, 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
9. Mauro Fiore
Cinematographer | Avatar
Mauro Fiore was born on November 15, 1964 in Marzi, Calabria, Italy. He is a cinematographer, known for Avatar (2009), Training Day (2001) and The Island (2005). He has been married to Christine Vollmer since 2000. They have three children.
10. Vilmos Zsigmond
Cinematographer | The Black Dahlia
Along with László Kovács, a fellow student who fled Hungary in 1956, Zsigmond rose to prominence in the 1970s. He is known for his use of natural light and vivid use of color on features such as The Long Goodbye (1973) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977).
11. Jeff Cronenweth
Cinematographer | Gone Girl
Jeff Cronenweth was born on January 14, 1962 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Gone Girl (2014), The Social Network (2010) and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011).
12. Wally Pfister
Cinematographer | Inception
Wally Pfister is an American cinematographer and film director, who is best known for his work with Christopher Nolan. He is also known for his work on director F. Gary Gray's The Italian Job (2003) and Bennett Miller's Moneyball (2011).
He made his directorial debut with the film Transcendence (...
13. John Alcott
Cinematographer | Barry Lyndon
John Alcott, the Oscar-winning cinematographer best known for his collaboration with director Stanley Kubrick, was born in 1931, in Isleworth, England, the son of movie executive Arthur Alcott, who would become the production controller at Gainsborough Studios during the 1940s.
Alcott began his film...
14. Matthew Libatique
Cinematographer | Black Swan
Matthew Libatique is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his work with director Darren Aronofsky on the films Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010), Noah (2014) and Mother! (2017). He also shot Bradley Cooper's directorial debut film, A Star Is ...
15. Lance Acord
Cinematographer | Lost in Translation
After studying film and photography at the San Francisco Art Institute, Lance moved to New York to assist photographer/filmmaker Bruce Weber. He began his career as a cinematographer shooting music videos and commercials with close friend and collaborator Spike Jonze. Lance quickly became one of ...
16. Sean Bobbitt
Cinematographer | 12 Years a Slave
Sean Bobbitt was born on November 29, 1958 in Corpus Christi, Texas, USA. He is a cinematographer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011).
17. John Toll
Cinematographer | Braveheart
John Toll is an American cinematographer. His filmography spans a wide variety of genres, including epic period drama, comedy, science fiction, and contemporary drama. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in both 1994 and 1995 for Legends of the Fall and Braveheart respectively.
He has ...
18. Seamus McGarvey
Cinematographer | Nocturnal Animals
SEAMUS McGARVEY (Director of Photography) has collected two Academy Award nominations for his cinematography: on Joe Wright's 2007 WWI drama "Atonement," and his 2012 adaptation of Tolstoy's classic, "Anna Karenina." In addition to the Oscar nominations, McGarvey won the British Society of ...
19. Mihai Malaimare Jr.
Cinematographer | The Master
Mihai Malaimare Jr. was born in 1975 in Bucharest, Romania. He is a cinematographer, known for The Master (2012), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and The Harder They Fall (2021).
20. Darius Khondji
Cinematographer | Amour
Darius Khondji was born on October 21, 1955 in Tehran, Iran. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Amour (2012), Se7en (1995) and Delicatessen (1991). He is married to Marianne Khondji. They have three children.
21. Claudio Miranda
Cinematographer | Life of Pi
Claudio Miranda was born in March 1965 in Valparaíso, Chile. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Life of Pi (2012), Top Gun: Maverick (2022) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). He has been married to Kelli Bean since February 2009.
22. Xiaoding Zhao
Cinematographer | Shi mian mai fu
Xiaoding Zhao is known for House of Flying Daggers (2004), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) and Shadow (2018).
23. Christopher Doyle
Cinematographer | Paranoid Park
Christopher Doyle was born on May 2, 1952 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Paranoid Park (2007), Hero (2002) and 2046 (2004).
24. Peter Pau
Cinematographer | Wo hu cang long
Pau has been one of the top cinematographers in Hong Kong. After his graduation of Filmmaking at San Francisco Art Institute in 1983, he directed his first feature "The Temptation of Dance" and Wu du qing chou (aka Misty) in the 1990s. Pau has been working with the top directors such as John Woo (_...
25. Peter Deming
Cinematographer | Mulholland Dr.
Peter Deming was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Mulholland Drive (2001), The Menu (2022) and The Continental (2023).
26. Larry Smith
Cinematographer | Only God Forgives
Larry Smith was born in London, England, UK. He is known for Only God Forgives (2013), Trafficker (2015) and The Guard (2011).
27. Stephen H. Burum
Cinematographer | The Untouchables
Stephen H. Burum was born on November 25, 1939 in Visalia, California, USA. He is a cinematographer, known for The Untouchables (1987), The War of the Roses (1989) and Mission: Impossible (1996).
28. Andrew Lesnie
Cinematographer | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Andrew Lesnie was an Australian cinematographer who frequently worked with Peter Jackson. He did the photography for The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit film trilogies. He also did the photography for Babe, King Kong, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I Am Legend and The Lovely Bones. He passed away...
29. Vittorio Storaro
Cinematographer | Apocalypse Now
Vittorio Storaro, the award-winning cinematographer who won Oscars for "Apocalypse Now (1979)", "Reds (1981)" and "The Last Emperor (1987)". He was born on June 24, 1940 in Rome, where his father was a projectionist at the Lux Film Studio. At the age of 11, he began studying photography at a ...
30. Andrzej Sekula
Cinematographer | Pulp Fiction
Andrzej Sekula was born in Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Pulp Fiction (1994), American Psycho (2000) and Reservoir Dogs (1992).
31. Jim Wilson
Producer | The Postman
Jim Wilson is known for The Postman (1997), Dances with Wolves (1990) and Wyatt Earp (1994).
32. Hoyte Van Hoytema
Cinematographer | Tenet
Hoyte Van Hoytema was born in Horgen, Switzerland. Van Hoytema is a Dutch-Swedish director of photography known for his work on The Fighter (2010), Her (2013), Interstellar (2014), and Dunkirk (2017). Van Hoytema always wanted to be a filmmaker, therefore he wished to attend a film school in The ...
33. Philippe Le Sourd
Cinematographer | Yi dai zong shi
Philippe Le Sourd is known for The Grandmaster (2013), The Beguiled (2017) and A Good Year (2006).
34. Michael Ballhaus
Cinematographer | Goodfellas
Michael Ballhaus was a German cinematographer. He worked on many American films, including Baby It's You (1983), Old Enough (1984), After Hours (1985), The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Dracula (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Gangs of New York ...
35. Peter Biziou
Cinematographer | Mississippi Burning
Peter Biziou was born on August 8, 1944 in Bangor, Caernarvonshire, Wales, UK. He is a cinematographer and producer, known for Mississippi Burning (1988), The Truman Show (1998) and Time Bandits (1981).
36. Roger Pratt
Cinematographer | 12 Monkeys
Roger Pratt was born on February 27, 1947 in Leicester, Leicestershire, England, UK. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for 12 Monkeys (1995), Chocolat (2000) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1994).
37. Owen Roizman
Cinematographer | The French Connection
Ace cinematographer Owen Roizman was born September 22, 1936, in Brooklyn, New York. His father Sol was a cinematographer for Fox Movietone News and his uncle Morrie Roizman was a film editor. Owen studied math and physics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. He began his career shooting TV ...
38. Lukasz Zal
Cinematographer | Ida
Lukasz Zal is an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer based in Poland. Cold War, directed by Pawel Pawlikowski, landed Lukasz Zal not only the Oscar nomination but also ASC Award, the Silver Frog Award for cinematography at the 2018 Camerimage Festival in Poland, as well as a nomination for ...
39. Michael Chapman
Cinematographer | Raging Bull
Michael Chapman is an American cinematographer. He is best known for Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The Fugitive (1993), and Primal Fear (1996).
Chapman began his film career as a camera operator before making the leap to cinematographer. As a cinematographer, he became famous for his two ...
40. Jack N. Green
Cinematographer | Unforgiven
Jack N. Green was born on November 18, 1946 in San Francisco, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Unforgiven (1992), The Bridges of Madison County (1995) and Serenity (2005).
41. Janusz Kaminski
Cinematographer | War Horse
Janusz Kaminski is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has established a partnership with Steven Spielberg, working as a cinematographer on his movies since 1993. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998).
His ...
42. Paul Atkins
Camera_department | The Tree of Life
From Antarctica to the tropical Pacific, Paul Atkins, ASC has filmed the world's wildlife and cultures for National Geographic, Disney, the BBC including such acclaimed series as PLANET EARTH, for IMAX screens and feature films. His cinematography and directing have earned numerous awards including...
43. Chris Menges
Cinematographer | Michael Collins
As an Academy Award-winning cinematographer who made the successful segue to directing features, Chris Menges has carved out a successful, but understated career. Menges got his start as an assistant editor and camera operator and even worked as a sound recordist several times, before working his ...
44. Tom Stern
Cinematographer | Changeling
Tom Stern was born on December 16, 1946 in Palo Alto, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Changeling (2008), Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Mystic River (2003). He was previously married to Françoise Combadière.
45. Edward Lachman
Cinematographer | Far from Heaven
Edward Lachman was born on March 31, 1948 in Morristown, New Jersey, USA. He is a cinematographer and director, known for Far from Heaven (2002), Carol (2015) and Ken Park (2002).
46. Nicolas Karakatsanis
Cinematographer | Triple 9
Nicolas Karakatsanis is known for Triple 9 (2016), Bullhead (2011) and Cruella (2021).
47. Jarin Blaschke
Cinematographer | The Northman
Jarin Blaschke was born on September 28, 1978 in Westminster, California, USA. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for The Northman (2022), The Lighthouse (2019) and The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015).
48. Florian Hoffmeister
Cinematographer | True Detective
Florian Hoffmeister was born in 1970 in Brunswick, Germany. He is a cinematographer and director, known for True Detective (2014), Tár (2022) and Pachinko (2022).
49. Hong Kyung-pyo
Cinematographer | Gisaengchung
Hong Kyung-pyo is known for Parasite (2019), The Wailing (2016) and Snowpiercer (2013).
50. Stuart Dryburgh
Cinematographer | The Piano
Stuart Dryburgh was born on March 30, 1952 in London, England, UK. He is a cinematographer, known for The Piano (1993), The Great Wall (2016) and The Painted Veil (2006).
51. Anthony Dod Mantle
Cinematographer | Slumdog Millionaire
Anthony Dod Mantle was born on April 14, 1955 in Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He is a cinematographer, known for Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Antichrist (2009) and The Last King of Scotland (2006).
52. Xiaoding Zhao
Cinematographer | Shi mian mai fu
Xiaoding Zhao is known for House of Flying Daggers (2004), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) and Shadow (2018).
53. Douglas Slocombe
Cinematographer | Rollerball
London-born Douglas Slocombe has long been regarded as one of the film industry's premiere cinematographers, but he began his career as a photojournalist for Life magazine and the Paris-Match newspaper before World War II. During the war he became a newsreel cameraman, and at war's end he went to ...
54. Mihai Malaimare Jr.
Cinematographer | The Master
Mihai Malaimare Jr. was born in 1975 in Bucharest, Romania. He is a cinematographer, known for The Master (2012), Jojo Rabbit (2019) and The Harder They Fall (2021).
55. Phedon Papamichael
Cinematographer | Nebraska
Phedon Papamichael, an award winning Cinematographer, was born in Athens, Greece and moved with his family to Germany, where in 1982 he completed his education in Fine Arts, in Munich. Working as a photojournalist brought Phedon to NYC in 1983, where he started crossing over into cinematography.
His...
56. Haskell Wexler
Cinematographer | Medium Cool
Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for Who's Afraid of ...
57. Haris Zambarloukos
Cinematographer | Belfast
Haris Zambarloukos was born on March 11, 1970 in Nicosia, Cyprus. He is a cinematographer and actor, known for Belfast (2021), Cinderella (2015) and Death on the Nile (2022).
58. Allen Daviau
Cinematographer | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Allen Daviau was born on June 14, 1942 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. He was a cinematographer and writer, known for E.T. (1982), Empire of the Sun (1987) and Bugsy (1991). He died on April 15, 2020 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.
59. Robert Surtees
Cinematographer | Ben-Hur
Robert L. Surtees began his working life as a portrait photographer and retoucher, before becoming camera assistant at Universal in 1927. He spent a lengthy apprenticeship (15 years) working under such experienced cinematographers as Hal Mohr, Joseph Ruttenberg and Gregg Toland. Between 1929 and ...
60. Mike Gioulakis
Cinematographer | It Follows
Mike Gioulakis is known for It Follows (2014), Us (2019) and Old (2021).
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