British cinematographer Lol Crawley's first feature credit was on an American independent film, Lance Hammer's Ballast, which earned him the Excellence in Cinematography award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival as well as a Spirit Award nomination. He was also cited by Variety as one of "10 Cinematographers to Watch," and Ballast received awards and critical praise around the world.
Prior to Ballast, he was director of photography on short films. These included multiple collaborations with directors Richard Fenwick, Chris J. Taylor, and Duane Hopkins. His work on the latter's Love Me or Leave Me Alone brought Mr. Crawley a Special Mention at the 2003 Brest European Short Film Festival. He reteamed with the director for the feature Better Things, which world-premiered at the 2008 Cannes International Film Festival.
His next features as cinematographer were, for Film4, Chris Morris' acclaimed satire Four Lions, which won a BAFTA and an Empire Award, among other honors; Morag McKinnon's Donkeys, which won the Best Film prize from the BAFTA (Scotland) Awards; the Armenian road movie romance Here, starring Ben Foster and Lubna Azabal for director Braden King; and Andrew Okpeaha McLean's Alaskan thriller On the Ice, for which Mr. Crawley was honored with the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography at the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival.
He was a BAFTA Award nominee for his work on the BBC miniseries The Crimson Petal and the White, directed by Marc Munden and starring Romola Garai and Chris O'Dowd.
Mr. Crawley was at work in South Africa as cinematographer on The Long Walk to Freedom, directed by Justin Chadwick and starring Idris Elba as Nelson Mandela.
Focus Features
