This year, IndieWire is expanding the number of festivals at which we run a survey of cinematographers about what formats, cameras, and lenses they chose and how those choices reflected the logistical and creative needs of their films.
Luckily, for the 2025 Berlin Film Festival, we got an expansive response from 56 directors of photography with films playing at the festival. They represent the full range of programming at Berlin, from the sharp sci-fi of Bong Joon-ho's "Mickey 17" to the threatening fantasy of "The Ice Tower" to the jazzy throwback of "Köln '75," the grounded character portraits of "Shadowboxing," and much more.
As ever, cinematographers don't make their choices in a vacuum. Shadi Chaaban, who shot the relationship drama "Beginnings," put the considerations succinctly. "There's so much gear out there that it's easy to get caught up in choices. The truth is, you can shoot a film with just about any camera or lens, and in the end, it's really about finding the right balance between aesthetics, cost, and time -- especially on a tight budget," Chaaban told IndieWire.
How each cinematographer navigates between aesthetics, cost, and time is its own story for each individual film. Ludovica Isidori, when preparing to shoot the road-trip movie "Dreams in Nightmares," wanted to find the cinematic equivalent of a best friend to share the wild car ride and joy of the road with. This led to a warm mix of 16mm film and digital.
"The 416 camera was obviously the wild card -- with its earthy nuances and its impertinent character, the 16mm film helped with amplifying the evocativeness of our visual landscape," Isidori told IndieWire. "What about a best friend: Someone you know inside out, someone who never lets you down, who can navigate every situation but also makes you shine at the right time? The ALEXA Mini was exactly that for me. I've used it and loved it for years because it has helped me to convey astonishing images, because it is small, agile, and indestructible, and because it looks great with whatever glass you put on it."
Sometimes, of course, the right choices for a film are right because they feel right. "I think in all honesty the Canon K35s are too mysterious to be understood. I wish I knew all the technical reasons why I like them so much," Ben Fordesman, director of photography for "The Thing With Feathers," told IndieWire. In the responses below, you'll find technical, logistical, and instinctual reasons for how each cinematographer pulled off the visual alchemy that gives their films the look they have.