Sean Bobbitt

Sean Bobbitt
Born	(1958-11-29) November 29, 1958 (age 66) Corpus Christi, Texas
Nationality	British, American
Occupation	Cinematographer
Known for	Hunger (2008) Shame (2011) 12 Years a Slave (2013) Widows (2018) Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Sean Francis Bobbitt, B.S.C. (born 29 November 1958) is an American-born British cinematographer.^[1] He is known for his collaborations with director Steve McQueen working on his films Hunger (2008), Shame (2011), 12 Years a Slave (2013), and Widows (2018). He earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Judas and the Black Messiah (2021)

Early life

Sean Bobbitt was born in Corpus Christi, Texas on 29 November 1958.^[1]

Career

Bobbitt started his career as a news and documentary cameraman, a role which took him to the most conflicted spots of the globe.

In 2008, Bobbitt worked with artist-turned-director Steve McQueen on British film Hunger, a hard-hitting film about the Northern Irish hunger striker, Bobby Sands. With this film Bobbitt, McQueen, editor Joe Walker and actor Michael Fassbender formed a collaborative award-winning team that have gone on to make a further two films, Shame and 12 Years a Slave. Bobbitt won a BIFA in 2008 for his work on Hunger. He was again nominated in 2011 for Shame, starring Academy Award nominee Carey Mulligan alongside Fassbender. In 2012, Bobbitt won the Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer of the Year Award at the European Film Awards for his work on Shame.^[2]

In 2011, Bobbitt worked on the pilot of HBO's acclaimed series Game of Thrones. The following year, Bobbitt completed filming on The Place Beyond the Pines, which stars Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes and Ray Liotta, a Neil Jordan film starring Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton and Jonny Lee Miller called Byzantium, and he concluded five years of working on Michael Winterbottom drama-film Everyday. In early 2013, he completed work on Oldboy, the Spike Lee-directed American remake of the 2003 South Korean film of the same name. The end of 2013 saw the release of 12 Years a Slave, for which he received multiple cinematography award nominations, and which ultimately won the coveted Best Picture Award at the 2014 Oscars.

Over the next few years, he worked on Kill the Messenger with Jeremy Renner, Rock the Kasbah with Bill Murray, Queen of Katwe with David Oyelowo, On Chesil Beach with Saoirse Ronan, Stronger with Jake Gyllenhaal. In 2018, he collaborated with McQueen again on heist movie Widows.

In 2019, he shot Judas and the Black Messiah for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography. The film was released on HBO Max in 2021, having been postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, Bobbitt filmed The Marvels, directed by Nia DiCosta.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
1999	Wonderland	Michael Winterbottom
2001	Lawless Heart	Tom Hunsinger Neil Hunter
2002	Summer Things	Michel Blanc
2006	Cargo	Clive Gordon
	The Situation	Philip Haas
2007	The Baker	Gareth Lewis
	Mrs Ratcliffe's Revolution	Bille Eltringham
2008	Hunger	Steve McQueen
2010	Africa United	Debs Gardner-Paterson
2011	Shame	Steve McQueen
	Hysteria	Tanya Wexler
2012	Everyday	Michael Winterbottom	Shared credit with Annenarie Lean-Vercoe, James Clark, Simon Tindall and Marcel Zyskind
	The Place Beyond the Pines	Derek Cianfrance
	Byzantium	Neil Jordan
2013	12 Years a Slave	Steve McQueen
	Oldboy	Spike Lee
2014	Kill the Messenger	Michael Cuesta
2015	Rock the Kasbah	Barry Levinson
2016	Queen of Katwe	Mira Nair
2017	On Chesil Beach	Dominic Cooke
	Stronger	David Gordon Green
2018	Widows	Steve McQueen
2020	The Courier	Dominic Cooke
	The Rhythm Section	Reed Morano
2021	Judas and the Black Messiah	Shaka King
2023	The Marvels	Nia DaCosta
2026	28 Years Later: The Bone Temple		Filming
TBA	Hedda		Post-production

Television

Mini-series

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2003	Canterbury Tales	Marc Munden Julian Jarrold	Episodes "The Knight's Tale" and "The Man of Law's Tale"
2004	The Long Firm	Bille Eltringham
2008	Sense and Sensibility	John Alexander
2009	Unforgiven	David Evans
2016	Codes of Conduct	Steve McQueen

TV movies

Year	Title	Director
2001	The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby	Stephen Whittaker
	Sweet Revenge	David Morrissey
2002	Jeffrey Archer: The Truth	Guy Jenkin
2003	Second Generation	Jon Sen

TV series

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2002	Spooks	Rob Bailey	Episodes "One Last Dance" and "Traitor's Gate"

Short films

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2000	Maisie's Catch	Dan Weldon
2001	Dog	Andrea Arnold
	Ladies Night	Caroline Hicks
2004	Charlotte	Steve McQueen
2006	Normal for Norfolk	Gareth Lewis
2007	Weddings and Beheadings	Amir Jamal
	Gravesend	Steve McQueen
2009	The Death of Pentheus	Philip Haas
	Static	Steve McQueen
	Giardini
2016	Mr. Burberry
2022	Avengers: Quantum Encounter	Danny Handke Chris Waitt	Shared credit with David Stump and Sam Renton

Documentary works

Film

Year	Title	Director
2010	Crack House USA	Anthony Wonke
2012	Trashed	Candida Brady

Miniseries

Year	Title	Director
1994	Watergate	Mick Gold
1998	Ancient Inventions	Daniel Percival Phil Grabsky

Short films

Year	Title	Director
2002	Western Deep	Steve McQueen

Awards and nominations

Year	Title	Awards/Nominations
2013	12 Years a Slave	Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – ASC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Dallas–Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Houston Film Critics Society Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Satellite Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography
2021	Judas and the Black Messiah	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography Nominated – Black Reel Award for Outstanding Cinematography

References

1. "Sean Bobbitt". IMDb. Retrieved 4 March 2014.^{[better source needed]}
2. "Joe Walker and Sean Bobbitt are awarded for their work on Shame".

External links

• Sean Bobbitt at IMDb
• Interview with Bright Lights Film Journal