written by Caleb Hammond, American Cinematographer
The filmmakers behind seven features from this year's festival detail their aesthetic approaches, on-set challenges, favorite scenes, and gear of choice.
Whether a longtime veteran or a relative newcomer, each cinematographer AC tracked down at this year’s Sundance Film Festival expressed a strong sense of nostalgia as this year’s edition marked the last in Park City, Utah.
Lol Crawley, ASC, BSC (Wicker) notes that he still secures jobs in America based on the work showcased in the 2008 drama Ballast — his first feature to premiere at Sundance, which earned him the festival’s Best Cinematography award. Sam Levy (The Only Living Pickpocket in New York) has served as director of photography for five features that premiered at Sundance and once as camera operator on another, and was also a Sundance cinematography fellow “a long time ago,” he notes.
Others are just getting started. For Stefan Weinberger, who met his wife while attending the festival only as a moviegoer in 2019, Union County is the first film on which he served as cinematographer. Lidia Nikonova’s would-be Sundance debut was disrupted by the festival’s pivot to an online-only edition in 2021; she was thrilled to have another shot at a proper premiere this year, this time with two films — the psychosexual-thriller feature Night Nurse and the short film Birdie.
The filmmakers behind the seven narrative features highlighted here also shared at least one artistic aim: to approach their films’ visual language as a means of transporting the viewer inside their lead character’s head. Chasing Summer — shot by Eric Branco, ASC — moved between sticks and handheld moves, depending on its protagonist’s internal state, while The Huntress — shot by Maria Sarasvati Herrera — sought to keep the viewer immersed in its main character’s mental deterioration, even during a complex sequence that unfolded on an active bus that moved throughout Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Read on to discover the inspiration, experiences and equipment that fueled eight cinematographers with films at Sundance 2026.
Lidia Nikonova — Night Nurse
The Approach
“We wanted to lean into the genre tropes that erotic thrillers afford, to create an underlying sense of sexual tension and suspense that hovers in every scene, but is not fully perceived, and works on a more subconscious level. In the film, there is an unusual relationship between the night nurse, Eleni (Cemre Paksoy), and her patient, Douglas (Bruce McKenzie), that evolves into a romantic relationship, and it was important for that relationship to feel authentic and believable. Longer lenses helped create more intimacy between the two characters, and we aimed for camera placement that would offer the viewer greater access to our characters, rather than obscure them. The film has such an unusual premise — an erotic thriller set in a retirement community — so we treated the cinematography as a world-building device. We needed the world of the film to feel both alluring and hypnotic, as well as eerie and dangerous.”
My Biggest Challenge
“The opening sequence is a four-minute oner that we shot on a robotic arm with a 24mm probe lens. It was shot during pickups, and by this point, we already had most of the film, but we wanted to create a tableau that contains the themes of the film without revealing what the film is. So, we designed this intricate shot for which the camera, paired with our probe lens, travels with the cord of a phone as it’s wrapped around Cemre’s body. My previous work experience with robo arms was only in shooting inanimate objects — but for this scene, Cemre had to lie down in one pose, practically motionless, as we programmed the cues and key frames for the robo arm. It took about six hours to program this move.”
Tech Specs
Camera: Arri Alexa Mini
Lenses: Panavision Ultra Speed primes; Cooke Varotal 25-250mm, 20-100mm zooms (rehoused by Panavision)
Stefan Weinberger — Union County
The Approach
“Having worked together for more than a decade, director Adam Meeks and I were extremely aligned on what we called the ‘simple language of our movie.’ We wanted to imbue the camerawork with honesty and empathy, and avoid sensationalizing the material or passing judgement on our characters, many of whom were real members of the recovery community who played themselves in the film. We opted for a hybrid documentary-narrative approach; those two elements needed to blend seamlessly for the film to feel cohesive. This meant we needed a lot of flexibility in our camerawork. Sometimes we didn’t have a lot of control over lighting, so the latitude afforded by the Alexa 35 was helpful.”
My Biggest Challenge
“One challenge was in shooting a narrative film in a documentary setting in a seamless way. We shot Will Poulter’s character’s monologue during a real Narcotics Anonymous meeting, with the real members of that community who are there every week, doing what they always do: coming in, telling their stories and sharing their struggles and ups and downs. We planted Poulter in that situation, and he delivered this incredible, scripted monologue about an hour-and-a-half into the meeting. We had to be ready for that, because after he finished, the meeting kept going — it passed to the next person. So, we were shooting a documentary and a narrative film — not only in the same film, but in the same scene, as well.
Tech Specs
Camera: Arri Alexa 35
Lenses: Cooke S4 primes; Angénieux Optimo 24-290mm, 28-76mm; Canon 17-120mm
Unit stills courtesy of Sundance Film Festival and the filmmakers, unless otherwise noted.
