Background and career
Emmanuel Lubezki Morgenstern (Spanish pronunciation: [emaˈnwel luˈβeski]; born November 30, 1964) is a Mexican cinematographer. Lubezki is known for uses of natural lighting and continuous uninterrupted shots in cinematography, often utilizing a Steadicam, a 3-axis gimbal, or hand-held camera. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with Terrence Malick, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. He has received numerous accolades including three consecutive wins for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for the science fiction thriller Gravity (2013), the dark comedy Birdman (2014), and the epic western The Revenant (2015). He was Oscar-nominated for his work on A Little Princess (1995), Sleepy Hollow (1999), The New World (2005), Children of Men (2006), and The Tree of Life (2011). Lubezki is a member of both the Mexican Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. Lubezki won the Royal Photographic Society Lumière Award for major achievement in cinematography, video or animation in 2016.
Lubezki was born to a Jewish family in Mexico City, Mexico. His father was actor and producer Muni Lubezki. His paternal grandfather is Lithuanian Jewish while his grandmother is also Jewish, from Russia. Lubezki studied film at Mexico's Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC), where he met Alfonso Cuarón. Lubezki is the cousin of billionaire businessman Daniel Lubetzky.
Lubezki began his career in Mexican film and television productions in the late 1980s. His first international production was the 1993 independent film Twenty Bucks. Lubezki is a frequent collaborator with fellow Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón. The two have been friends since they were teenagers and attended the same film school at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Together they have worked on six motion pictures: Sólo Con Tu Pareja, A Little Princess, Great Expectations, Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, and Gravity. His work with Cuarón on Children of Men was praised for utilizing a number of new technologies and distinctive techniques. The "roadside ambush" scene was shot in one extended take utilizing a special camera rig invented by Doggicam systems, developed from the company's Power Slide system. For the scene, a vehicle was modified to enable seats to tilt and lower actors out of the way of the camera. The windshield of the car was designed to tilt out of the way to allow camera movement in and out through the front windscreen. A crew of four, including Lubezki, rode on the roof. Children of Men also features a seven-and-a-half-minute battle sequence composed of roughly five seamless edits. Lubezki won his first Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Cuarón's Gravity, a thriller set in outer space. The film was praised for the way it combined two shots through digital backgrounds of space to create the illusion of scenes done in a single shot. Lubezki won his second Academy Award in the following year for his work on Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman. The film used a similar technique from Gravity, being very unusual in the way the entire movie was shot so as to appear to be photographed in one continuous take. Lubezki won the award again in 2015 for Iñárritu's The Revenant, becoming a milestone for his third consecutive win and for being the first cinematographer to do so. The film was shot entirely in the wilderness during a cold season, minimizing the amount of CGI and using only natural lighting. The process proved to be extremely difficult, which required a limited amount of time to shoot each scene, thus causing production delays, budget overruns, and changes of locations for proper settings. Despite everything, the movie became both a commercial and a critical success, with much praise towards its atmospheric tone and realism.
Lubezki is known for groundbreaking uses of natural lighting and continuous uninterrupted shots in cinematography, often utilizing a Steadicam, a 3-axis gimbal, or hand-held camera to orchestrate fluid, uninterrupted camera movements during particularly significant scenes. He is also known for his frequent collaborations with directors Terrence Malick, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. Lubezki is a member of both the Mexican Society of Cinematographers and the American Society of Cinematographers. Lubezki won the Royal Photographic Society Lumière Award for major achievement in cinematography, video or animation in 2016.
Lubezki has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the following films:
68th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, nomination, A Little Princess (1995) 72nd Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, nomination, Sleepy Hollow (1999) 78th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, nomination, The New World (2005) 79th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, nomination, Children of Men (2006) 84th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, nomination, The Tree of Life (2011) 86th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, win, Gravity (2013) 87th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, win, Birdman (2014) 88th Academy Awards: Best Cinematography, win, The Revenant (2015)
Sources
Net-worth figure: Celebrity Net Worth (October 2026), in USD. Biography and career facts: the person's Wikipedia article and linked reporting. Snapshot date for all StarWorth figures: 28 October 2026.
