Luca Bigazzi


Luca Bigazzi is an Italian cinematographer. He has won seven David di Donatello for Best Cinematography awards and received fourteen nominations, making him the highest awarded artist in this category. He is the first Italian cinematographer to be nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited Series or Movie category, for the 2016 series The Young Pope by Paolo Sorrentino. He has worked with directors such as Silvio Soldini, Mario Martone, Felice Farina, Gianni Amelio, Francesca Archibugi, Michele Placido, Abbas Kiarostami, and Paolo Sorrentino.

Career

Bigazzi started working in the advertising field in 1977 as assistant director, and at the same time he cultivated his passion for photography. He shifted to working in cinema in 1983, and his debut as director of photography was in that year's Silvio Soldini film Paesaggio con figure, which was screened at the Locarno Film Festival. Gradually, Bigazzi devoted himself more and more to cinema, abandoning the advertising field. His partnership with Soldini would continue in many other films, and he won his second David di Donatello award for 2000's Bread and Tulips. In 1994, he worked with Gianni Amelio on Lamerica, which won him his first David di Donatello as well as a Nastro d'Argento. In 1999, he was awarded the Osella d'oro award in Venice for The Way We Laughed by Amelio and Shooting the Moon by Francesca Archibugi. He has also collaborated with Mario Martone, Giuseppe Piccioni, and Ciprì & Maresco.
Bigazzi followed his early successes with work on Paolo Sorrentino's films, beginning with The Consequences of Love, for which he won the Nastro d'Argento in 2005, then The Family Friend, Il divo, This Must Be the Place, for which he won a David di Donatello in 2012, The Great Beauty, winner of the Academy Award for [Best International Feature Film] in 2014, and finally Youth, which won best film at the European Film Awards in 2015.
Bigazzi collaborated with Francesca Comencini in 2001 on The Words of My Father and again in 2002 on the creation of the documentary Carlo Giuliani, Boy, which screened out of competition at the Cannes Film Festival that same year. The film addresses the death of Carlo Giuliani, who was killed in Genoa by a police officer during the demonstrations against the G8 in 2001.

Selected filmography

Paesaggio con figure The Peaceful Air of the West Death of a Neapolitan Mathematician A Soul Split in Two Lamerica Nasty Love Lo zio di Brooklyn Un eroe borghese Luna e l'altra The Vesuvians An Eyewitness Account The Acrobats The Way We Laughed Shooting the Moon Fuori Dal Mondo Bread and Tulips I Prefer the Sound of the Sea The Words of My Father Tomorrow Burning in the Wind A Journey Called Love Carlo Giuliani, Boy The Consequences of Love The Keys to the House An Italian Romance I Like to Work (Mobbing) Ovunque sei Romanzo Criminale Mario's War Our Country The Family Friend The Missing Star The Right Distance The Trial Begins Il Divo Giulia Doesn't Date at Night The White Space Certified Copy La passione The Jewel Shun Li and the Poet Kryptonite! This Must Be the Place Un giorno speciale First Snowfall The Great Beauty L'intrepido The Chair of Happiness Youth One Kiss The Young Pope Tenderness Sicilian Ghost Story The Leisure Seeker Loro Io sono Tempesta The New Pope

Awards and recognition