Each year, more and more women filmmakers are stepping into critical roles and getting the credit they deserve, from directing to camera operation, production design and editing. In this piece, we’re celebrating just a few of the incredible women DPs by highlighting their accomplishments, their stories, and advice they have for other women in the industry, as well as some of their most notable work.
Have other incredible women DPs you’d love to spotlight? Share with us in the comments!
Image source: ASC
Alice Brooks, ASC is a cinematographer who has photographed award-winning feature films, television shows and commercials, including recent projects such as director Jon M. Chu’s adaptation of the hit musical “Wicked.” She also shot “tick tick…BOOM!” for Netflix and Imagine Entertainment, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and produced by Ron Howard.
Her other recent work includes the adaptation of Miranda’s musical “In The Heights” for Warner Bros., which was also directed by Chu. The film’s cinematography received widespread critical acclaim. Brooks also lensed “Home Before Dark” (pilot and season one) for Apple TV+, Paramount TV and Anonymous Content, produced by Dana Fox, Dara Resnik and Joy Gorman.
Image source: Medium
Cirina Catania is the CEO/Founder of Catania Studios and Executive Director of the newly formed, “High School Media Collective,” with experience in all phases of production and post-production. She is known for her strong creative and technical skills as well as her ability to motivate others.
Catania was one of the original co-founders and former executive director of the Sundance Film Festival. She is a writer, director, DP, and tech-oriented filmmaker/journalist with numerous film, broadcast television, and broadband credits.
She’s currently finishing up a documentary called Kionte Storey.
Image source: Carissa Dorson
Carissa Dorson is a Los Angeles-based director of photography originally from Silver Spring, Maryland. Previously featured on ProductionHUB.com for her work in television and still photography, Dorson brings her own unique style to the mix.
Currently, she is the DP of A Little Late with Lilly Singh on NBC. She recently lensed I Think She Likes You, which premiered at Tribeca, and the comedy feature, It’s a Party, starring SNL’s Ego Nwodim. She is also a fine art photographer, with an interest in portraiture. Her ongoing photo series, Funny People. Serious Photos, was featured in L.A. Weekly; her first photo book, Conversations with Dad is being published with Kehrer Verlag.
Shanna Maurizi began her art career in a black and white darkroom as a teenager, and has been experimenting with images ever since. Her work as a colorist is informed by an engagement with how images communicate and how they tell a story.
She brings two decades of experience with photochemical processes and color theory as well as a depth of technical expertise to the color suite, and her creative approach has led to rewarding collaborations with many directors, showrunners and agencies in NYC and beyond. Currently she teaches Color and Storytelling in the Dept of Film and Televison at NYU. She is also an indie DP.
Image source: Panorama Audiovisual
Alicia Robbins, a celebrated DP in popular television and film, and the first female cinematographer to shoot a Shondaland series and served as lead DP on Grey’s Anatomy season 17. She is a 14-year industry veteran, having worked on Grey’s Anatomy season 16, and critically acclaimed episodes of the series, such as season 15’s “Silent All These Years.”
In addition, she has worked on feature films “The Wedding Invitation” and “BabySplitters,” which won Best Romantic Comedy at the 2016 Manhattan Film Festival and Best Comedy at Burbank International Festival, and Best Narrative at Santa Barbara International Film Festival, respectively. Robbins also received the prestigious 2018 Emerging Cinematographer Award from the Cinematographer’s Guild for the short Internet Gangsters and has shot for projects that include “Creed II,” “Tag,” “The Post,” “WAT” and “Scorpion.”
LUMIX Ambassador Skye is known for writing, directing and being the DP on her feature film “River,” which is debuting worldwide this summer. She has won more than 18 awards for her short film of “River,” filmed in May 2020, available on DUST, Hollyshorts Bitpix, and more.
A champion of women in filmmaking, Skye leads a digital community called #shefilmtribe on Instagram, a safe place for women in the industry to encourage and bond with one another, share experiences and have a dialogue about what it means to be a woman in film. Skye’s highly anticipated Whiskey Docuseries adventure, “Binders Stash,” which debuted in Fall 2021.