Łukasz Żal

Łukasz Żal (; born 24 June 1981) is a Polish cinematographer, best known for his work on the films Ida, Loving Vincent (2017), Cold War (2018) and The Zone of Interest (2023).

Life and career Żal has said that he "fell in love" with cinema at the age of 16, when he attended a course on filmmaking held at a local gymnasium in his home town of Koszalin, Poland. His interest in photography was sparked by a friend, who asked to use him as a subject and also showed him how to use a camera. He went on to study photography at the Leon Schiller National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź, from which he graduated in 2007. Whilst there, he watched many films and decided to pursue a career as a cinematographer because of the "stronger emotional content" he observed in movies.

Filmography Feature film Year Title Director Notes 2013 Ida Paweł Pawlikowski With Ryszard Lenczewski 2015 The Here After Magnus von Horn 2016 Na granicyWojciech Kasperski Ikona Documentary film 2017 Loving Vincent Dorota KobielaHugh Welchman With Tristan Oliver 2018 Dovlatov Aleksei Alekseivich German Cold War Paweł Pawlikowski 2020 I'm Thinking of Ending Things Charlie Kaufman 2023 The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer 2025 Hamnet Chloé Zhao 2026 Fatherland Paweł Pawlikowski

Short film Year Title Director Notes 2015 The DragonTomasz BagińskiSegments of Polish Legends Twardowsky 2023 Til Further Notice Valdimar Jóhannsson Segment of Circus Maximus

Documentary short Year Title Director 2011 Papparazzi Piotr Bernas2013 Joanna Aneta Kopacz Arena Piotr Bernas Lewa polowa twarzy Marcin Bortkiewicz

Awards and nominations Major awards