Michael Ballhaus

Ballhaus is one of the world’s most important cinematographers. Before spending 25 years working primarily in the USA, he established his reputation in Germany where he worked with, among others, auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder, helping “Young German Cinema” achieve new artistic freedom. At the lens alongside great American directors such as Martin Scorsese, he had a decisive effect on the lighting and look of US moviemaking.

His body of work comprises some 130 films for theaters and television, including 15 films with Fassbinder and seven with Scorsese alone, alongside many other legendary directors, including Peter Lilienthal, Wolfgang Petersen, Volker Schlöndorff, John Sayles, Robert Redford, James L. Brooks, Paul Newman, Mike Nichols, and Francis Ford Coppola.