Introducing the nominees for the 2nd AFC Awards
Introducing the cinematographers nominated in one of the five sections of the second AFC Awards. As a reminder, the winners will be announced at the award ceremony on 4 February 2025 at 7:30 p.m. at Cabaret Sauvage in Paris.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A FICTION FEATURE FILM

– Lucie Baudinaud, AFC, for Une affaire d’honneur, directed by Vincent Perez
Lucie Baudinaud is originally from Bonifacio in Corsica and began her studies in Montpellier, then in Lyon, and finally at La Fémis in Paris. Her graduation film, It Will Come to Light, is set in Hofsos, Iceland. She also photographed Trucs de gosses, a romantic comedy that won an award at Clermont in 2014, which led to her meeting Elie Grappe for the film Olga, presented at the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2021.
Lucie established a collaboration with Emilie Noblet, working on series for OCS, France TV, and Netflix. Her first feature film, Bis Repetita, is set to be released in May 2024. Among her other projects, she has worked as a cinematographer on Rêves de jeunesse (Cannes Acid 2019), Les Enfants terribles (Camerimage 2021), and The Dust of Modern Life, filmed in Vietnam. Her travels and cultural exchanges influence her style, capturing emotions through various cinematic languages. She also collaborates with Angela Ottobah on Paula and Vincent Perez on Une affaire d’honneur, the latter being celebrated at Camerimage with two nominations for the AFC Awards.
– Yves Cape, AFC, for Memory, directed by Michel Franco
Born in Belgium in 1960 to a German-Hungarian mother and a Belgian-American father. Normal schooling until the baccalaureate. Introductory trip to the USA inspires his vocation. Studied photography in Brussels at the “Ateliers du 75”. In 1982, Prix Dumeunier awarded to a young portrait photographer. Hit hard by the punk wave, multi-instrumentalist (maracas, wood bloc, melodicas) in “Les Cherokees”, a cult band on the Brussels scene. Then studied image at INSAS.
– Paul Guilhaume, AFC, for Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard
In fiction, Paul Guilhaume has worked with Jacques Audiard (Les Olympiades, Emilia Perez) and Léa Mysius (Ava, Prix de la photographie à Stockholm, Les cinq diables), among others. In documentaries, he has worked with Sébastien Lifshitz (Petite fille, Adolescentes, Casa Susana...) and Alexander Abaturov (Paradis, Prix AFC documentaire 2024). In 2025, Emilia Pérez was nominated for Best Picture at both the Bafta and the Oscars.
– Franz Lustig, for Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders
Born on October 7, 1967, in Freiburg, Franz Lustig developed a passion for cinematography at age 11 after receiving his first Super8 camera. After working as a freelance camera assistant and editor, he became one of the first students at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg, graduating in 1995 with a master’s degree in cinematography.
Since 1994, he has worked as a director of photography for commercials and music videos with renowned directors worldwide. He has also collaborated with Wim Wenders on three feature films, including Land of Plenty, Don’t Come Knocking, and Palermo Shooting, earning accolades such as "Best European Cinematographer" in 2005.
Lustig has also contributed to notable documentaries, including 2 or 3 Things I Know About Him and Dance for All. In 2012, he received the Mobius Award for "Best Cinematographer. »
– Mihai Malaimare Jr., ASC, for Megalopolis, directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Mihai Malaimare Jr. is a renowned cinematographer, recently acclaimed for Megalopolis (2024), by Francis Ford Coppola, which premiered at Cannes. He also worked on Winning Time (2022) and The Harder They Fall (2021).
He gained recognition with JoJo Rabbit (2019), earning the Hollywood Film Award for Best Cinematographer, and The Hate U Give (2018), which received multiple accolades. His collaborations with Coppola include Youth Without Youth (2007), Tetro (2009), and Twixt (2011).
His work on Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master earned several awards and a Camerimage Golden Frog nomination. He has also shot numerous commercials for Apple, Nike, and Sony, featuring stars like LeBron James and Taylor Swift.
Originally from Romania, Mihai Malaimare Jr. now resides in Los Angeles and continues to pursue his passion for photography.
– Aymerick Pilarski, AFC, for Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot, directed by Rithy Panh
Aymerick Pilarski is a cinematographer and member of the AFC. After studying visual arts in Australia, he graduated from the prestigious Beijing Film Academy. His mastery of foreign languages, particularly Mandarin, enabled him to work very early on on international co-productions in China (Outcast, directed by Nick Powell with Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen, The Great Wall, directed by Zhang Yimou with Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe). After receiving the Best Cinematography award for his work with martial arts legend Vincent Zhao on Invisible Tattoo, Aymerick Pilarski begins collaborating with acclaimed Asian filmmakers, including Wang Quan’an, with whom he shoots The Steppe Woman, the Cop and the Egg (Berlinale 2019, Camerimage 2020). Back in France, he works with other acclaimed filmmakers such as Abderrahmane Sissako (Black Tea, Berlinale 2024). Rendez-vous avec Pol Pot marks his first collaboration with French-Cambodian director Rithy Panh. Selected for the Cannes Film Festival and Camerimage, the film also represented Cambodia at the Oscars. Aymerick Pilarski was also a member of the international jury at this year’s Festival des 3 Continents.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A SERIES (episode, pilot or mini-series) :
– Christophe Beaucarne, AFC, SBC, for "D’argent et de sang" – S.1 E.1, directed by Xavier Giannoli and Frédéric Planchon
Christophe Beaucarne (1964) is a Belgian cinematographer and member of the AFC and SBC. He grew up near Wavre in Wallonia and studied at INSAS, graduating in 1990. He began his career as a cinematographer in the mid-90s on Les Anges gardiens (Jean-Marie Poiré, 1995).
Appreciated as much for his talent as for his artistic sensibility, Christophe has lit over 50 films in 30 years, and has collaborated with many renowned directors as such as Mathieu Amalric (Tournée, 2010 ; La Chambre bleue, 2014 ; Barbara, 2018 ; all three presented at the Cannes Film Festival in Official Competition and at Un Certain Regard), Anne Fontaine (Coco avant Chanel, 2009 ; Perfect Mothers ; presented at Sundance in 2013), Nicole Garcia (Mal de pierres, 2016 ; Amants, selected for the Venice Film Festival in 2020), Bruno Podalydès, Michel Gondry and Jaco Van Dormael (Le Tout Nouveau Testament, selected for the Directors’ Fortnight in 2015 and nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes in 2016).
Between 2010 and 2022, he was nominated three times for the Magritte for Best Image, four times for the Prix Lumière and six times for the César for Best Photography. These three awards were won respectively for his work on the films Mr Nobody (Jaco Jaco Van Dormael, 2011), Barbara (Mathieu Almaric, 2018) and Les Illusions perdues (Xavier Giannoli, 2022).
- Jean-François Hensgens, AFC, SBC, for "Tout pour Agnès" - S.1 Ep.2, directed by Vincent Garenq
After studying photography at the École des Beaux-Arts St-Luc in Liège, Jean-François Hensgens joined the IAD, a film school at the University of Louvain-la-Neuve, in the Image section.
He then spent 12 years as 1st camera assistant, working with cinematographers such as Alain Marcoen, SBC, Benoît Debie, Hélène Louvart, AFC, Denis Lenoir, AFC, ASC, ASK, and Glynn Speckaert, AFC, ASC, SBC.
This was followed by his own journey as director of photography on films such as Dikkenek (by Olivier Van Hoofstad), A perdre la raison (by Joacquim Lafosse), Antigang (by Benjamin Rocher), Tête de Turc (by Pascal Elbé), Les Intranquilles (by Joacquim Lafosse), Le Fil (by Daniel Auteuil) or Ma frère (by Lisse Akoka and Romane Gueret, released in 2025), as well as series such as "Tunnel" (by Dominik Mol) or" Tout pour Agnès" (by Vincent Garenq). His work is a great source of pleasure, as it allows him to tell a story using a camera movement, a color, a contrast that will take the viewer into the imagination of a director.
– Brice Pancot, AFC, for "De grâce" - S.1 Ep.1, directed by Vincent Maël Cardona
Born in 1986, Brice Pancot is a French director of photography. After two years at the Lycée Jacques Prévert in Boulogne-Billancourt, he entered the Image department of La Fémis, under the direction of Pierre-William Glenn, AFC, and Jean-Jacques Bouhon, AFGC, from which he graduated in 2010.
Co-founder of post-production lab La Ruche Studio, he quickly developed an interest in digital tools and began working as a cinematographer and colorist. He reunited with director Vincent Maël Cardona, a classmate at La Fémis, for his first feature film, Les Magnétiques, selected for the Quinzaine des Cinéastes in 2021, then awarded the César for Best First Film in 2022.
They continued their collaboration in 2021 with the series "De Grâce", 6 x 52 min. broadcast on Arte, and currently with Le Roi Soleil, in post-production, their second feature film for cinema.
– Christopher Ross, BSC, for "Shōgun" - S.1 Ep.1, directed by Jonathan van Tulleken
Christopher Ross is an award-winning British cinematographer and president of the BSC (British Society of Cinematographers). His recent projects include the series "Day of the Jackal" (2024) and "Shōgun" (2024).
A frequent collaborator of Danny Boyle (Yesterday, Trust), he has also worked on The Great Escaper (2023), The Swimmers (2022), and London to Brighton (2006). He has received multiple accolades, including a BAFTA Craft Award nomination.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A DOCUMENTARY :

– Noé Bach, AFC, for Little Girl Blue, directed by Mona Achache
Noé Bach is a French director of photography, a graduate of La Fémis Image department, class of 2014. Noé first worked on numerous short films such as Pauline asservie, Mardi de 8 à 18, La Persistente, Qu’importe si les bêtes meurent, Lions.
Since 2018, he has been working on feature films and series. After his first feature Just Kids, he participated in the making of the following films : Les Enfants d’Isadora, La Terre des hommes, Les Amours d’Anaïs, and most recently Diamant brut and Spectateurs !
Little Girl Blue is his first collaboration on a documentary format.
– Fabien Faure and Alexis Pazoumian, for Black Garden, directed by Alexis Pazoumian
Fabien Faure was born in Paris in 1984. Born into an artistic family, he discovered cinema very early in his childhood and developed an artistic sensibility.
After completing a BTS in Image, he began working as a camera assistant, notably with Laurent Tangy, AFC, with whom he would continue to work regularly, as camera assistant and then as camer operator (La French, Le Grand bain, BAC Nord).
Always seeking to renew himself, he likes to oscillate between the different formats and configurations available to him : fiction, documentaries, music videos and commercials.
After a dozen short films, including Olivier Rosemberg’s J’en rêve encore, Nora El Hourch’s Quelques secondes (Directors’ Fortnight), Manon Kneusé’s Grande vitesse, Alexis Pazoumian’s Mineur and Johanna Piaton’s La Paye, he has just finished shooting Mélisa Godet’s next feature, La Maison des femmes, produced by Emma Javaux and Une Fille Production.
In early 2025, he will begin work on Mazel Brouk, the first feature film by Hanael, with whom he had already made the short film.
At the same time, he is continuing his interest in documentaries, with Bamba Diop’s forthcoming project Les Routiers de l’espoir, produced by Spécial Touch Studio, due to be shot between Marseille, Morocco, Senegal and Mali.
Alexis Pazoumian is a photographer and filmmaker. He practices social and documentary photography. His approach focuses on communities living on the margins of society. From Armenia to the United States, and more recently Siberia, notions of humanity, identity and society are central to his work.
Alexis Pazoumian is the author of two books published by Editions André Frère, Faubourg Treme (2018) and Sacha (2020).
In 2020, supported by Arte, he will direct a documentary on Nagorno-Karabakh. In 2022 he releases the short film Bellus with the support of Canal+. His first feature-length documentary Jardin noir will be broadcast on France Télévisions in summer 2024.
Alexis Pazoumian has taken part in several international exhibitions and also collaborates with NGOs (Action contre la faim, France Alzheimer...), brands (Nike, Société Générale, Uber, Google...) and media (Vice, National Geographic, Libération, Télérama…).
– Jean-Gabriel Leynaud, for Toxicily, directed by François-Xavier Destors
Jean-Gabriel Leynaud is a versatile cinematographer who works in documentary, fiction and advertising, with both large and small crews, depending on the project. He likes to go from studio special effects to the remotest corners of the planet, always working with the director to create the dream images for each film.
He has worked as cinematographer on over fifteen feature-length documentaries with directors including François-Xavier Destor (Norilsk, l’étreinte de glace, Toxicily, Didy), Emilio Maillé (Sky Poets, Miradas Multiples, Teodoro en Concerto), Olivier Morel (Ever, Rêve, Hélène Cixous, On The Bridge), Laurent Chevalier (La Vie sans Brahim), Lars Bom (Bengt The Gentle Scientist). He has also photographed over fifty documentaries for Netflix, Arte, France TV, National Geographic, Discovery, NHK, BBC...
He has signed commercials for Coca Cola, Mac Donald, La Macif, Onfone (Scandinavian telephone operator)...
In fiction, he has worked as cinematographer and second-unit director on Olias Barco’s Snowboarder, camera operator on Laurent Chevalier’s Le Cri du caméléon and cinematographer on several short films, including Nicolas Devienne’s Sauvage, which won two festival prizes for best photography.
His photos have been published in National Geographic, Elle, Paris Match, Biled Bladet and by the Leica blog.
– Franz Lustig, for Anselm, directed by Wim Wenders
See above.
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A FIRST OR SECOND FICTION FEATURE FILM BY A CINEMATOGRAPHER RESIDING IN FRANCE :
– Evgenia Alexandrova, AFC, for Sans Cœur, directed by Nara Normande and Tião
A graduate of the Image department of the national film school La Fémis, Evgenia Alexandrova works as a cinematographer on fiction and documentary films. Her credits include Noémie Merlant’s Mi Iubita mon amour (Cannes Film Festival 2021), Sonia Benslama’s Machtat (ACID, Cannes 2023), and Nara Normande and Tião’s Sans Coeur (Venice Film Festival 2023), for which she won the Best Photography Award at the Rio Film Festival 2023. She then signed the image of Les Femmes au Balcon presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 (currently in theaters) and also Kleber Mendonça Filho’s next film (in post-production).
– Inès Tabarin, AFC, for Vivants, directed by Alix Delaporte
After studying architecture, completing an audiovisual BTS and a master’s degree in Theory and Aesthetics of Cinema at the Sorbonne, Ines Tabarin assisted cinematographers such as Sean Price Williams on Good Time and Caroline Champetier on Annette. At the same time, she began working as a cinematographer on short films, music videos and documentaries. In 2021, she left for Cape Verde to shoot her first feature-length film, Ama Gloria, directed by Marie Amachoukeli and produced by Bénédicte Couvreur, which opened Critics’ Week at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.
The same year, she directed the image for Iris Brey’s series "Split", produced by Cineteve, and joined the AFC, sponsored by Caroline Champetier, AFC, and Benoît Delhomme, AFC, before imaging Alix Delaporte’s third feature, Vivants, screened in the official selection of the 2023 Venice Film Festival.
In 2023, she shot Sylvain Desclous’ third feature, Le Système Victoria, adapted from the book by Eric Reinhardt and produced by Cinefrance.
Most recently, she directed Aurélien Peyre’s first feature, produced by Move Movie, and Laura Samani’s second feature, Un anno di scuola, produced by Nefertiti films and Tomsa film.
SPOTLIGHT AWARD
– Lucie Baudinaud, AFC, for Une affaire d’honneur, directed by Vincent Perez
See above.
– Muriel Cravatte, for Mothership, documentary she directed
Born in 1969, Muriel Cravatte holds dual Belgian and French nationality. She graduated from INSAS (Belgium) in the Image department. Starting as a camera assistant, she then became a musician and video artist before working as a director and director of photography in both fiction and documentary. After several short fiction films, she directed her first documentary feature, Demain est si loin (Cinema du Réel 2020), followed by Mothership in 2022-2023. She is currently developing a fiction feature film titled Silences. Additionally, she regularly collaborates with director David Geselson (Compagnie Lieux Dits).
– Josée Deshaies, for La Bête, directed by Bertrand Bonello
After studying art history in Italy, Josée Deshaies returned to Quebec, where she became a camera assistant (clapper loader, then pointer), while making her debut as director of photography on documentaries and shorts.
It was her meeting with Bertrand Bonello that enabled her to direct her first feature film, shot in Montreal.
This collaboration led to several feature films shot in France (Le Pornographe, Tirésia, De la guerre, L’Apollonide, Saint Laurent), all presented at the Cannes Film Festival.
Now a resident of France, she enjoys shooting fiction films abroad : N. Suwa in Japan, Riad Sattouf in Georgia, Y. Zéléké in Ethiopia, or films in Paris directed by foreigners : Lodge Kerrigan, Ira Sachs, New York independent filmmakers.
She often returns to Quebec to shoot feature films (several nominations at the Canadian Awards and the Prix du cinéma du Québec). In France, she was nominated for a César for L’Apollonide and Saint Laurent. She was nominated for the Prix Lumières for La Bête.
In 2024, she was invited to join the Oscars Academy in Hollywood and is currently preparing Bertrand Bonello’s next film in Rome.