MATTHIAS GRUNSKY, bvk

Matthias Grunsky is an internationally working cinematographer. When not traveling, he is based in Munich.

His career started as camera assistant on movies in Austria and Germany, where he has learned from cinematographers such as Lee Daniel on Richard Linklater's BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) or on assisting Helmut Pirnat on many productions like Franz Antel's DER BOCKERER II (1996). He then graduated from the two year cinematography program at the renowned American Film Institute in Los Angeles.

Grunsky's first feature length movie as cinematographer was FUNNY HA HA (2002) for director Andrew Bujalski, with whom he has continued to collaborate on his following films.

Especially with Bujalski he sometimes works with unconventional technologies. He has used black and white cameras with video tubes on the movie COMPUTER CHESS, for which Grunsky got nominated for Best Cinematography at the Independent Spirit Awards 2014. On the movie THERE THERE (2022), which was shot remotely under Covid restrictions, Grunsky and director Bujalski employed iPhone cameras.

His work has garnered critical acclaim from THE NEW YORKER, L.A. TIMES, CAHIERS DU CINEMA, FILMMAKER MAGAZINE and VARIETY for his "brave camera work", "intimate, unshowy lensing", "some of the most endearingly daring black and white imagery in recent years", "Chiaroscuro lighting reminiscent of Rembrandt and de La Tour", and for his "unique shot design". For the musical film SAINTS REST he won Best Cinematography at the Midwest Independent Film Festival 2019 and for the history drama DEFIANCE: THREE WOMEN AND THE VOTE he was awarded Best Cinematography at the History Film Fest 2019 in Rijeka.

Other movies Grunsky has shot include NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS (2008), directed by Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig, MARLENE (2018) the debut film of the Berlin-based auteur Andreas Resch , the Austrian/German movies TALES OF FRANZ (2021) and NEW TALES OF FRANZ (2022), both directed by Johannes Schmid, or LEIBNIZ: CHRONICLE OF A LOST PAINTING (2025), a collaboration with Edgar Reitz, the acclaimed chronicler of German memory and director of the epic HEIMAT series, for which Grunsky employed high-contrast chiaroscuro lighting inspired by Baroque painting.