“The cinematography ranges from epic to intimate...”
Christian Bielz is an award-winning cinematographer who straddles the worlds of fiction and documentary. His images have been showcased at TIFF, Hot Docs, Fantasia, and other festivals world-wide, and have aired on major North American networks and streaming platforms including Netflix and Amazon.
Christian’s latest feature ‘OUT COME THE WOLVES’ (dir. Adam MacDonald) hit theatres this summer. It stars FBI’s Missy Peregrym, Joris Jarsky, and Damon Runyan. Previous collaborations with MacDonald include occult horror 'PYEWACKET' (TIFF 2017) , and survival thriller ‘BACKCOUNTRY’ (TIFF 2014).
At the 2023 Hot Docs Festival, two documentary features which he lensed had their world premiere: ‘CYNARA’ - an examination of the legal missteps that led to convicting a mother in the death of her 16-yr old disabled daughter (dir. Sherien Barsoum); and ‘THE MAN WHO STOLE EINSTEIN’S BRAIN’ - the story of the pathologist who covertly removed Einstein’s brain during autopsy, hoping research could reveal the secrets to its brilliance (dir. Michelle Shephard). These films subsequently received a combined 7 nominations at the 2024 Canadian Screen Awards.
Christian was nominated for a 2023 CSC Award in the Documentary Long Format category for his work on the Amazon Prime series ‘THE UNSOLVED MURDER OF BEVERLY LYNN SMITH’. The four-part documentary premiered at HotDocs in 2022 before launching on Prime as a Canadian Original first.
In 2021, Christian received a CSC Award in the Dramatic Short Cinematography category for his work on ‘BLOODSHED’ (dirs. Paolo Mancini + Daniel Watchorn). The film originally screened at Montreal’s Fantasia Festival in 2020, garnering a Best Cinematography award including a $10k in-kind prize from Mels Studios. In the same year, Christian was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Photography in Drama for the narrative feature ‘NOWHERE TO BE FOUND’ (dir: Thomas Michael).
At the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards, Christian’s work in CBC’s Nature of Things documentary ‘THE LAST WALRUS’ (dir. Nathalie Bibeau) was recognized with a nomination in the Best Photography, Documentary or Factual category.
‘THE WALRUS AND THE WHISTLEBLOWER’, Christian’s feature collaboration with director Nathalie Bibeau, premiered at HotDocs in 2020, earning a Rogers Audience Award and overall favourite at Hot Docs. This placed it on the Oscars short list for 2021.
In 2013, Christian and long-time friend/collaborator Taylor Fox, won a Latin Grammy for Best Music Video: ‘ERES TU’ - by renowned Cuban-Canadian artist Alex Cuba.
