Ellen Kuras (born July 10, 1959) is an American cinematographer whose work includes narrative and documentary films, music videos and commercials in both the studio and independent worlds. One of few female members of the American Society of Cinematographers, she is a pioneer best known for her work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). She has collaborated with directors such as Michel Gondry, Spike Lee, Sam Mendes, Jim Jarmusch, Rebecca Miller, Martin Scorsese and more. She is the three-time winner of the Award for Excellence in Dramatic Cinematography at the Sundance Film Festival, for her films Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, Angela and Swoon, which was her first dramatic feature after getting her start in political documentaries.
In 2008, she released her directorial debut, The Betrayal (Nerakhoon), which she co-directed, co-wrote, co-produced and shot. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2009. In 2010, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Non-Fiction Filmmaking for the film.
Kuras grew up in Cedar Grove, New Jersey.[1] Kuras had a fever as an infant, leaving her almost deaf in one ear and with about 20% hearing in the other.[2]
She attended Cedar Grove High School, where she served as president of the school's chapter of the National Honor Society.[3] After earning a double degree in anthropology and semiotics at Brown University, she studied photography at RISD and 8mm filmmaking in New York, with the plan to become a documentary filmmaker. In the early 1980s, Kuras planned to study on a Fulbright grant at a film school in Poland but was unable to go due to the introduction of martial law.[4] She is of Polish descent on her father's side and the family surname was originally Kuraś.[5]
Kuras began her film career in 1987, shooting Ellen Bruno's Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia, the first US movie filmed in Cambodia after the Vietnam War. In 1990 she won the Eastman Kodak Best Cinematography Focus Award for her work on Samsara.[citation needed] The film got notice from the Student Academy Awards[citation needed] and the Sundance Film Festival where it received Special Jury Recognition.[citation needed]
That same year, she was asked by producer Christine Vachon to shoot her first dramatic film (Swoon) for director Tom Kalin. The film won her the Sundance Award for Excellence in Cinematography in 1992.[citation needed] This was the start of work with Killer Films, which includes Postcards From America and I Shot Andy Warhol.[citation needed]
She worked for political documentaries, and, later, other genre of film and TV, such as big-budget movies (Blow, Analyze That), independent films (Angela, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), documentaries (Unzipped, 4 Little Girls), concert films (Lou Reed's Berlin, Shine a Light), successful TV movies (If These Walls Could Talk), commercials and music videos for musicians like Bjørk, The White Stripes.[citation needed]
In 1999,[6] she was invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers, the fifth female member to join more than 400 male peers.[citation needed]
She has received accolades, including the Women in Film Kodak Vision Award in 1999 and was honored at the 2006 Gotham Award for her entire body of work.[citation needed] In 2003 she was the first film technician to receive the NY Women In Film and TV Muse Award, traditionally is given to actresses.[citation needed] In 2009 she was a special Honoree at the Santa Fe Film Festival for her work in the field of cinematography.[citation needed]
She has served on the juries of several film festivals. In 1997 she was invited to be on the jury of the Sundance Film Festival. In 2013, she was a member of the jury at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[7] In 2015 she was on the Jury of the Belgrade Film Festival and the Camerimage. She has guest-lectured at film schools and festival panels, including SVA, NYU, BU University of Texas at Austin, Walker Art Center, Hamptons International Film Festival, Camerimage, Berlinale and Woodstock Film Festival.[citation needed]
Short film
Feature film
Television
Concert film
Miniseries
TV movies
Documentary film
Miniseries
TV movie
Academy Awards
Primetime Emmy Awards
Sundance Film Festival
Independent Spirit Awards
Online Film Critics Society
Her family life was happy enough while she was growing up in Cedar Grove, New Jersey, from which she left for Brown in 1977.