Born: 1957, Nancy, France.

Education: Université Paris Sorbonne [Philosophy]; École Supérieure Libre d'Études Cinématographiques [ESEC], Paris, France [graduated in 1978].

Career: In the late 1970s he got a grant from the French government and directed the short 'Réalités rares'. 'I decided to move to New York. That was around 1980. I thought it might be easier - but it was tougher. I stayed in New York around six to nine months. That's when I met doph Nestor Almendros. He advised me to go back to France. So I went back to France, but I was speaking English better than before. Around that time, a commercial producer in France, who thought the best commercials were in England and the States, started hiring English and American directors and cinematographers, and they needed assistants who were able to speak English... that's how I got started.' Became c.asst working with Douglas Slocombe, Gerry Fisher, a.o., on commercials.

Ph 200+ commercials. Member of the ASC since 2009.

Awards: European Film Award [2001], 'César' Award nom [2001], 'Oscar' AA nom [2001], Palm Springs IFF 'Da Vinci' Award [2002], ASC Award nom [2002] & BAFTA Film Award nom [2002] for 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain'; 'Oscar' AA nom [2004], ASC Film Award [2004], BSFC Award '2nd place' [2004], 'César' Award [2004] & European Film Award nom [2005] for 'Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement'; Plus Camerimage 'Silver Frog' Award [2007] for 'Across the Universe'; 'Oscar' AA nom [2009] for 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince'.

Bruno Delbonnel: 'First, digital timing is a new tool for cinematographers, but it doesn't mean you can shoot and find the look of the film afterwards in timing. Digital timing helps to go further in what was done during the shoot. Digital timing won't give you a direction of light if you didn't give this direction on the set in the first place. I did 90 percent of the lighting of 'Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain' during the main photography, using filters on the camera, gels on light, etc. Everything I could do while we were shooting, I did. Secondly, digital timing is going to change the culture of cinematography because it opens new territories. There are a lot of things that you cannot do with a lab process that are easy to do with digital timing. I think that digital timing can help us to create new kinds of images, new kinds of looks and therefore will change ways of seeing and ways of feeling emotions through light. We are just at the beginning of a very interesting way of using colors and contrast.... But of course you need two people to do that: a director and a cinematographer, who both want to experiment. Only two people can decide the look of the film - the director and the cinematographer - because they work together from the beginning so they know exactly what they want to achieve. So, the cinematographer must be there to time the film. There are so many possibilities with digital timing that you have to know exactly what you want otherwise you can spend months in timing. You can also ruin your film, because you can change it totally. We are not painters - we are not working alone - we are working for a director and for a script. If you are not at the final timing, all those discussions you had previously are useless. Cinematographers have to be involved with the timing.' [From interview on KODAK OnFilm website.]

1981        Le bunker de la dernière rafale/The Bunker of the Last Gunshots [Marc Caro & Jean-Pierre Jeunet] b&w;

                    short/26m

1983        Pas de repos pour Billy Brakko [Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro] c; exp short/5m

1989        Le grand cirque [Bruno Delbonnel] c; doc/80m

1992        Jour de fauche [Vincent Monnet] c; short/14m

1992        IP5: L'île aux pachydermes/IP5 [: The Island of Pachyderms] [Jean-Jacques Beineix] p/c; ph Pyrénées team (+

                    co-c.op); ph: Jean-François Robin

1993        Tout le monde n'a pas eu la chance d'avoir des parents communistes/Not Everyone Is Lucky Enough to

                    Have Communist Parents [Jean-Jacques Zilbermann] c; cph: Thierry Jault

1993        Regarde-moi [Gabrielle Lazure] c; short/5m

1994        Du poulet [Tatiana Vialle] c; short/5m

199?        Volga, Volga [Marianne Lamour] tv-doc/?m; ep series 'Les grands fleuves'

1995        C'est jamais loin [Alain Centonze] c

1995        Pourvu que ça dure [Michel Thibaut] c

1996        Aficion [Passion d'arènes]/L'afficion [Marianne Lamour] ?; doc/?m

1997        Sigmund Freud, l'invention de la psychanalyse [Elisabeth Kapnist] 2-part tv-doc/b&w-c

1999        Marie, Nonna, la vierge et moi [Francis Renaud] tvm/s16

1999        Chambre nº 13 [ep (7m) 'Chair en vie' dir by Fabienne Berthaud & Aruna Villiers] 13-part tv-series

2000        Luis Miguel Dominguín [, el número uno] [, le torero du XXième siècle] [Marianne Lamour] DigiBeta/b&w-c;

                    doc/52m

2000        Elvis de Médicis [César Vayssié] c; short/55m

2000        Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain/Amélie from Montmarte [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] s35/b&w-c

2000        The Cat's Meow [Peter Bogdanovich] b&w/c; Greece 2uc: Alexander Fischerkoesen

2001        Ni pour, ni contre (bien au contraire)/Personne n'est comme tout le monde [Cédric Klapisch] c

2003        Un long dimanche de fiançailles/A Very Long Engagement [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] s35/c; 2uc: Beatrice Mizrahi &

                    Michel Amathieu

2004        Dangerous Parking [Peter Howitt] announced as doph; filmed October-November 2006 by ph Zoran Veljkovic

2005        Infamous [Douglas McGrath] c

2005        Paris, je t'aime [seg 'Tuileries' dir by Ethan & Joel Coen] c

2005        Across the Universe [Julie Taymor] s35/c; uwph: Pete Romano

2006        Prvi put s ocem na izbore [Samia Karamehmedovic] pre-production; status unknown

2006        Life of Pi [Jean-Pierre Jeunet] pre-production; prod put on hold

2007        Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince [David Yates] s35/c; 2uc: Mike Brewster; aph: Adam Dale; model unit ph:

                    Nigel Stone; vfx ph: James D. Kelly; filmed 2007-08

2009        Faust [Aleksandr Sokurov] pre-production; scheduled for an August start

1979        Le manège [Jean-Pierre Jeunet; anim/10m] sound; ph: J-P. Jeunet

1985        37°2 le matin/Betty Blue [Jean-Jacques Beineix] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1986        Kamikaze [Didier Grousset] 2nd c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1986        Le solitaire/The Loner [Jacques Deray] co-c.asst; ph: Jean-François Robin

1988        Foutaises [, catalogue nostalgique des plaisirs de la vie]/Things I Like, Things I Don't Like [1988, Jean-Pierre

                    Jeunet; short/7m] co-scrpl; ph: Jean Poisson

1990        Un coeur qui bat/A Beating Heart [François Dupeyron] co-c.asst; ph: Yves Angelo

1992        IP5: L'île aux pachydermes/IP5 [: The Island of Pachyderms] [Jean-Jacques Beineix] co-c.op (+ ph Pyrénées

                    team); ph: Jean-François Robin

197?        Réalités rares [short/7m] ph: Henri Alekan

1989        Le grand cirque [doc; + ph] see Films & Television

2006        Paso doble [doc/c/41m] ph: B. Delbonnel; filmed on 6 May