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11 Cinematographers Who Became Great Directors

The examples of actors who have gone on to direct films are presumably rather widely known. You have your Afflecks, your Eastwoods, your Jolies and numerous others. Screenwriters may be somewhat less famous when they try their hands at directing their own features, but there are many of these too, such as Charlie Kaufman, Shane Black, and Paul Schrader, to name but a few.

2) Rodrigo García

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Albert Nobbs

If the name Rodrigo García sounds vaguely familiar to you, chances are it’s because you’ve seen his name at the bottom of the screen in the opening credits of one HBO show or another. He’s directed episodes of The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Big Love, the regrettably underseen Tell Me You Love Me, and produced and directed the excellent In Treatment. Before this, he was a cinematographer and camera operator in various movies and TV projects; he even worked alongside the aforementioned team of Lubezki and Cuarón on Great Expectations.

His days as a cinematographer have been behind him since 2000, when he debuted as a feature director with Things You Can Tell by Just Looking at Her, which, incidentally, was shot by Emmanuel Lubezki. García has gone back and forth between features and TV directing since then, though since the end of In Treatment he has turned a greater attention to films increasing in profile, from Mother and Child to Albert Nobbs. He’s reteaming with Lubezki for a movie reportedly due out next year called Last Days in the Desert, starring Ewan McGregor and Tye Sheridan.

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