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Sundance 2025: Cinematographer Interviews

A snowy, sunny street crowded with cars in a mountain town.Main Street at the Sundance Film Festival (photo by Jovelle Tamayo)

Each year, Filmmaker sends all Sundance feature film or series cinematographers a questionnaire to complete ahead of their film’s festival screening. We also send out a single question for feature directors to answer as well as questionnaires for editors and first-time Sundance feature producers.

Below, find links to individual cinematographer responses, which will be updated daily during the festival.

“We Wanted a Visual Language That Was Both Filmic and Intimate”: DP Guy Mossman on Speak.

“A Feeling of Endless Night”: DP Arseni Khachaturan on April

“With Each Location We Embraced Its Essence”: DP Matthew Chuang on Jimpa

“It Was the Movie I’d Been Waiting For”: DP Paul Meyers on Omaha

“We Kept the Space Very Intimate for Our Subjects”: DP Laura Goncalves on Sly Lives

“Merging Aesthetic Elements and Practical Considerations”: DP Patrick Jones on By Design

“I Had to Relearn How to Look at and Respond to the World”: DP Jon Shenk on Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore

“Interrotrons Can Be a Real Drain on Production”: DP David Jacobson on Pee-wee as Himself

“The Camera Team Was Also the SFX Team”: DP Rhayne Vermette on Dead Lover

“An Observational Character Study of an Ex-Offender”: DP Sam Motamedi on Ricky

“Shooting in Tunisia Means Adapting to What’s Available: DP Frida Marzouk on Where the Wind Comes From

“For Me, Less is More”: DP Anna Smoronova on Bubble & Squeak

“A Continuous Swing Between Memories and the Present.”: DP Clarissa Cappellani on Brides

“This Was Our One Shot To Capture Something Lasting”: DP Ethan Indorf on André is an Idiot

“Having a Crew Was Not an Option: DP Gianluca Matarrese on GEN_

“A New Way of Looking at the American West”: DP Austin Shelton on East of Wall

“Horror Films Have a Unique Ability to Tap into Deep Emotions”: DP Andreas Johannessen on Rabbit Trap

“I Sometimes Felt Like the Worst Partner in the World”: DP Clarke Gayford on Prime Minister

“We All Have a Desire to Make Our Lives Make Sense”: DP Brandon Somerhalder on Come See Me in the Good Light

“I Love Diving Into the Unexpected”: DP Amine Berrada on Sukkwan Island

“Shooting Vérité Means Embracing the Coincidences”: DP Lars Erlend Tubaas Øymo on Folktales

“A Way to Capture the Spirit of the Times”: DP Pavel Talankin, Mr. Nobody Against Putin

“We Wanted To Play with This Line Between Artifice and Reality”: DP Eric Yue on Atropia

“A Feeling of Magical Imperfection that Film Brings”: DP Sara Mishara on Two Women

“It Was Always Fun, But Not Necessarily Easy”: DP Pete Ohs on OBEX

“I’ve Never Prepped a Movie So Many Times.”: DP Christopher Aoun, All That’s Left of You

“Claustrophobic Framing Became the Photographic Heart”: DP Ben Fordesman on The Thing with Feathers

“Let the Weight of the Words Carry the Scene”: DP Bao Nguyen on The Stringer

“A One-person Crew”: DP Brittany Shyne on Seeds

“All the Delicate Layers Gently Rose to the Surface”: DP Daisy Zhou on Bunnylovr

“We Often Had to Reimagine Entire Setups”: DP Adolpho Veloso on Train Dreams

“I Wanted to Always be Receptive to Inspiration on the Day”: DP Conor Murphy on Oh, Hi!

“To Evoke Those Deep Emotional Layers With Utmost Honesty”: DP Vikas Urs on Sabar Bonda (Cactus Pears)

“Anything That Does a Good Job Everywhere Can’t Do a Great Job Anywhere”: DP Marcus Patterson on Sunfish

“These Two Worlds Couldn’t Be More Opposite”: DP Tobias Schliessler on Kiss of the Spider Woman

“There Was an Interesting Opportunity to Mix Formats”: DP Ethan Palmer on Plainclothes

“Something That Felt Unadorned and a Bit Raw”: DP Doug Emmett on Hal & Harper

“Letting Brooklyn be a Constant but Subtle Presence”: DP Martim Vian on Love, Brooklyn

“I Don’t Want to Worry About Camera Settings”: DP Diego Tenorio on The Virgin of the Quarry Lake

“Snapshots of a Memory of Our Character”: DP Mia Cioffi Henry on Sorry, Baby

“The Feeling of Triumph was Palpable”: DP Martin DiCicco on Heightened Scrutiny

“Balancing the Cultural Context with the Story’s Essence”: DP Mohammadreza Eyni on Cutting Through Rocks

“Forgetting the Camera Was Rolling, It Hit Me”: DPs Neema Sadeghi & Nicholas Bupp on Serious People

“We Weren’t Looking To Trick the Audience”: DP Michael Latham on SALLY

“Draw the Audience into Johan’s World”: DP Nicolai Lok on Sauna

“A Constant Atmosphere of Uncertainty and Caution”: DPs Anas Saeed, Ibrahim Snoopy & Phil Cox on Khartoum

“Capturing a Kenyan Point of View as a Central Theme”: DP Christopher King on How to Build a Library

“A Mix of Natural Indie Style, Theatrical Spotlights and Neon Colors”: DP Dustin Supencheck on Touch Me

“These Small Letters Can Cause Such Instability”: DP Paulius Kontijevas on The Librarians

“I Don’t Know if We Knew Exactly Where It Would Take Us”: DPs Antonio Rossi and Ben Bloodwell on Bucks County, USA

“Perfection Can Be Your Enemy”: DP Paul Gleason on Didn’t Die

“We Wanted to Get Across a Sense of the Overbearing Heat”: DP Rufai Ajala on Mad Bills to Pay

“I Made Sure My Presence and Camerawork Reflected the Difficult Position They Were Put In”: DP Amy Bench on Shooting The Librarians

 

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