written by Sarah Shachat, IndieWire
Each year, IndieWire reaches out to the cinematographers behind the films premiering at the Sundance Film Festival and asks them to tell us about the cameras and lenses they chose to shoot with, as well as why those choices were the right ones for their movies.
Especially when it comes to the narrative feature films, the “what” always has some interesting variety — lots of directors of photography worked with the ALEXA Mini or ALEXA 35 for their films at Sundance this year, while Sony Venice 1s and Sony Venice 2s also make plenty of appearances. But the “why” is always fascinatingly specific — does your budget and/or the speed of your shoot necessitate going with a familiar or particularly lightweight package from ARRI? Do low-light conditions make the Venice’s sensor appealing? Has Chris Pine made sure you’re able to shoot on film? Were you able to borrow the actual Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar primes used by Gordon Willis on “The Godfather?”
Going through the answers to this 2026 survey is an education for anyone — cinematographer, or otherwise — who might want to take a film to Sundance one day, because they are all stories about creative problem-solving past limitations and collaborating in order to realize a shared vision. Bayley Broome-Peake, the cinematographer of “Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant,” told IndieWire, “My work as a cinematographer is about developing a visual language that grows out of deep collaboration with the directors and a close intimacy with the story and characters. In that sense, the film ultimately chose its own lenses.”
Sam Levy, who used those incredible Super Baltars on “The Only Living Pickpocket In New York,” described what happens when you find the right way to articulate something visually that is deeply emotional and felt. “‘Pickpocket’ required a look of menacing desperation — these are characters who’ve been working the New York streets for decades — and the Super Baltars allowed us to hold them with empathy while maintaining a voluptuous bleakness. The result felt lived-in, weary, and dangerous, exactly as the story demanded,” Levy told IndieWire.
Below are the responses from DPs of narrative features playing at Sundance. You can also check out our cinematography survey on the 2026 Sundance documentary features.
“Night Nurse”
Dir: Georgia Bernstein, DP: Lidia Nikonova
Category: NEXT
Format: 1.85:1 Spherical
Camera: ALEXA Mini LF
Lenses: Panavision Super Speeds, 25-250mm T4 Cooke PV Zoom, 20-100mm T3.1 Cooke PV Zoom
The Look: The optical quality of the film is of the utmost importance to me. Myself and the director, Georgia Bernstein, tested everything we could get our hands on before we made the final decision on the look. The core of the film is based on desire, lusting, revealing, and withholding information, and so the zooms with their viscous elastic aesthetic quality felt right for the film. I love the softness and the artifacts in the older Cookes — they can bring a filmic texture to a digital image in a way that makes the image feel timeless. We paired our zooms with a matching set of Panavision Super Speeds, looking for the specimen that has the same halation and color quality. The primes really came in handy when we worked in tight locations or during some night exteriors. Older zooms are relatively slow, and it was great to have faster primes as a backup.
“Union County”
Dir: Adam Meeks, DP: Stefan Weinberger
Category: US Competition
Format: 4K ProRes 4444
Camera: ALEXA Mini, ALEXA 35
Lenses: Cooke S4i Primes, Angenieux Optimo Ultra 12x 24-290mm Zoom, Angenieux Optimo 28-76mm Zoom, Canon Cine-Servo 17-120mm Zoom
The Look: In “Union County,” protagonist Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) navigates the ups and downs of addiction recovery within a mandatory drug court program in rural Ohio. And while Cody’s story is fictitious, the program is completely real, and its leaders and participants play themselves in the film. Within this docu-fiction hybridity, we had a mandate to shoot the beats of the script as impactfully as possible while also retaining the flexibility to capture certain authentic moments as they unfolded in real time.
Our camera and lens choices were driven by a desire to reflect the world of the film truthfully, without affectation or pretense. The film’s documentary elements necessitated digital capture, so I chose the Alexa 35 both for its latitude in the highlights as well as the simple feeling of familiarity having worked with Arri sensors for years. After testing a wide variety of prime lenses, director Adam Meeks and I settled on Cooke S4s for their intimate feel, versatility, and specific focal lengths (25mm, 32mm, 40mm) that we both gravitate towards.
Adam and I have been working together for a decade, and so by the time we got to set for “Union County,” we were super aligned on the film’s visual language. We entertained ourselves by counting to three and saying in unison what focal length we wanted for each shot and rarely ever disagreed. ACs Elliot Barnes and Sarah Takizawa are also longtime friends and collaborators, and usually knew what lens I was going to choose before I even did.
Some of the most important moments in the film occurred during real drug court sessions and NA meetings, and while we were super lucky to be granted access to shoot in these extremely intimate spaces, it meant having little control over blocking and no second takes. 2nd camera operator Faye Tsakas (also a Producer on the film) and I shot these sequences on zooms, and drew from our respective documentary experience to position ourselves strategically, covering both scripted dialogue and spontaneous testimonies and reactions while maintaining a sense of our protagonist’s subjectivity throughout the scenes.
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