Claire Mathon | France

• Best Cinematography, César Awards
• Best Cinematography, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards
• Best Cinematography, Lumières Award

“You have to be at once an ingenious technician, an enduring sportsperson and a sensitive artist. Be able to confront moments of inactivity and loneliness as well as blending into a group for weeks on end. All of which constitutes an exhilarating prospect.” – Claire Mathon

Claire Mathon graduated from studying film at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière in 1998. Since then, she has worked on several short films, documentaries and feature films, and was nominated for and won multiple prestigious cinematography awards.

They include the César Award for Best Cinematography, Lumières Award for Best Cinematography and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography for Portrait of a Lady on Fire (dir. Céline Sciamma, 2019). She was nominated for the César Award for Best Cinematography for the film Stranger by the Lake (dir. Alain Guiraudie, 2013).

She has also shot Saint Omer (dir. Alice Diop, 2022), Spencer (dir. Pablo Larraín, 2021), Petite Maman (dir. Céline Sciamma, 2021), Atlantics (dir. Mati Diop, 2019), and many other films.

Screening titles:

• A Dramatic Film – 22/9/2023 (Fri) 7:45pm
• Portrait of a Lady on Fire – 23/9/2023 (Sat) 7:30pm

Christian A. Maier | Austria

• Best Cinematography, Austrian Film Award
• German Camera Award

“Things have improved, but there is still no talk of [gender] equality, which is why I am unreservedly in favour of a quota. Nothing will ever change otherwise. After all, for a very long time there was an unwritten quota for men.” - Christine A. Maier

Christine A. Maier’s cinematography has been featured in films by Henner Winckler, Amie Siegel, Jamie Babbit, Barbara Albert and Jasmila Žbanić, whose film Grbavica (2006) won the Golden Bear at Berlinale.

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020), her recent cooperation with Žbanić, won Best Film at the European Film Awards, and was nominated for international feature film categories at the Oscars and BAFTA. She received the Austrian Film Award for Best Cinematography and the German Camera Award for Quo Vadis, Aida?. With Mademoiselle Paradis (dir. Barbara Albert, 2018), she received Best Cinematography at the Austrian Film Award, for and was nominated for the same award for Life Guidance (dir. Ruth Mader, 2017).

Her work includes I Know How You Breathe (2022 – 2023), Elfriede Jelinek - Language Unleashed (dir. Claudia Müller, 2022, won the German Film Award for Best Documentary), Johanna Dohnal – Visionary of Feminism (dir. Sabine Derflinger, 2019, won Best Documentary at the Austrian Film Award), and Nordrand (dir. Barbara Albert, 2000) amongst others. 

Screening title:

• Quo Vadis, Aida? – 6/8/2023 (Sun) 7:30pm

Judith Kaufmann | Germany

• German Camera Award
• Best Cinematography, Austrian Film Award
• Best Cinematography, German Critics Association Awards

"We all have similar emotions but they find such different expressions. The question then is: How do I make pain, happiness, shame, confusion, yearning…visible. Palpable. Without thought. Not through words but images."- Judith Kaufmann

Judith Kaufmann began her career as a Director of Photography in 1991 and has since worked on many award-winning feature films, mini-series, TV movies and documentaries. Her recent work Corsage (dir. Marie Kreutzer, 2022) premiered at Un Certain Regard in Cannes and was chosen as Austria’s official competition entry for the Academy Awards. 

She won multiple Best Cinematography awards, such as the Austrian Film Award, German Camera Award, German Critics Association Awards, German Television Awards; and was nominated several times at these awards as well as at the Camerimage, Tribeca Film Festival, and others.

Her body of work also includes The Teachers’ Lounge (dir. Ilker Çatak, 2023, won Best Film at the German Film Award), A Regular Woman (dir. Sherry Hormann, 2019), All About Me (dir. Caroline Link, 2018), 13 Minutes (dir. Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2015) and Two Lives (dir. Georg Maas, 2012) amongst other films.

In 2012, Kaufmann received the Honorary Award of the Deutsche Kamerapreis.

Screening titles:

• 13 Minutes – 30/6/2023 (Fri) 7:45pm
• All About Me – 29/7/2023 (Sat) 7:30pm

Virginie Surdej | Belgium

• Best Cinematography, Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film
• Best Cinematography, Carthage Film Festival

“I find a lot of pleasure in working with the others. I like to re-discover directors with whom I have worked already and work on new projects with them. I also like to meet new ones. It allows me to discover new universes.” – Virginie Surdej

Virginie Surdej graduated from the camera and lighting department at INSAS Brussels in 1999, and has shot several short films, documentaries and feature films.

She has won several awards including Best Cinematography at the Namur International Festival of French-Speaking Film for By the Name of Tania (dir. Mary Jimenez, Bénédicte Liénard, 2019), which was also nominated for the Golden Frog in the Feature Documentary Films Competition, one of the top prizes at Camerimage, and won Best Film at Raindance; and Best Cinematography at Carthage Film Festival for Adam (dir. Maryam Touzani, 2019, screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes) among others. Her recent works include Nuestras Madres (dir. César Díaz, 2019), which won Caméra d'Or at Cannes. 

Screening title:

• By the Name of Tania – 1/7/2023 (Sat) 7:30pm

Caroline Guimbal | Belgium

• Cinematographers' Debuts Competition Awards, Camerimage
• Best Cinematographer, Women in Film Festival
• Special Mention Award for Best Cinematography, Sole Luna Festival

“How to film intimacy without voyeurism? How to see through the eyes of those we film? How to capture the beauty of a moment with accuracy? The documentary school and its ethics, the depth of the encounters, have opened me to this quality of look, also essential for fiction films.” – Caroline Guimbal

After earning a MA in cinematography from Institute of Media Arts (Belgium) in 2013, Caroline Guimbal started to work as a director of photography for fiction and documentary films.

She recently collaborated with Emmanuel Nicot on Love According to Dalva, which was selected for the Cannes Critics’ Week, and won Best Cinematographer's Debut at Camerimage Festival in 2022. She also worked together with Cecile Mavet on the film Wild Women, and won Best Cinematographer at Women in Film Festival in 2022, and with Annick Ghijzelings on the film Ma'ohi Nui, In the Heart of the Ocean My Country Lies that was selected for the Berlinale and won the Special Mention Award for Best Cinematography at the Sole Luna Festival in 2018.

She has filmed, among others, Noe Reutenauer’s A Bump in the Heart, Karima Saidï’s A Way Home, Alexandra Kandy Longuet’s Chasser les Dragons and Alexandra Kandy Longuet’s Vacancy, that won an award for Best World Documentary Film in 2018 Jihlava IDFF.

Screening title:

• Love According to Dalva – 14/6/2023 (Wed) 7:45pm

Gabriela Betschart | Switzerland

• First Steps Award Berlin for camera work
• Alexis Victor Thalberg Award for camera work

After studying graphic design and working as a graphic designer, Gabriela Betschart studied film and cinematography in different universities in Switzerland and Germany (Lucerne, Zurich, Munich and Potsdam).

Her work has been selected by multiple film festivals, and were nominated for and won several prizes, such as at the Swiss Film Award, Locarno Film Festival, International Leipzig Festival for Documentary and Animated Film, and Max Ophüls Award Germany amongst many others. She won First Steps Award Berlin and Alexis Victor Thalberg Award for camera work.

Her body of work includes Our Child (dir. Marina Belobrovaja, 2021), #Female Pleasure (dir. Barbara Miller, 2018), Neuland (dir. Anna Thommen, 2013), Ma na Sapna - A Mother’s Dream (dir. Valerie Blankenbyl, 2013) and others.

Screening titles:

• #Female Pleasure – 5/8/2023 (Sat) 7:30pm
• Our Child – 5/8/2023 (Sat) 4:00pm

Speaker's profile

Ruby Yang

Ruby Yang is an Academy Award winner for the Documentary Short Subject, The Blood of Yingzhou District (2006). She is also known for directing the Oscar-nominated documentary short The Warriors of Qiugang (2010) and the award-winning feature documentary My Voice, My Life (2014).

She has been teaching master-level documentary courses for the students at HKU JMSC since 2013. She founded the Hong Kong Documentary Initiative at HKU, aiming to nurture the next generation of documentary filmmakers in the region. In May 2019, she received the Artist of the Year in Film of Hong Kong Arts Development Awards.

Yang is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. 

Moderator's profile

Lillian Liu

LIU Hiu Ying Lillian is a PhD student in Transcultural Studies at the Institute of Transtextual and Transcultural Studies (IETT), France. She holds a B.A. in Applied Foreign Languages (French-English-Japanese) and an MPhil in Comparative Cultural Studies from Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University. Her research focuses on post-colonial societies, Hong Kong cinema and Quebec cinema. She is also a freelance translator, and a short film curator at the Hong Kong Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.”