Focus Features

Harris Savides, ASC

Director of Photography

Harris Savides was an Independent Spirit Award nominee as cinematographer of Milk, also for Focus Features, starring Academy Award winner Sean Penn. The latter film marked Mr. Savides’ fifth feature collaboration with director Gus Van Sant. Their prior works together include Gerry and Elephant, for which Mr. Savides won a New York Film Critics Circle award (for both films) and was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards (for each film); Last Days, for which he was again an Independent Spirit Award nominee; and Finding Forrester. Their sixth film together is Restless, which is currently in post-production.

Mr. Savides’ other films as director of photography include Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg, also for Focus Features, and Margot at the Wedding; David Fincher’s Zodiac and The Game; Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, for which he was a BAFTA Award nominee; Martin Scorsese’s Hitchcock homage short The Key to Reserva; Woody Allen’s Whatever Works; James Gray’s The Yards;and Jonathan Glazer’s Birth.

He received his degree from the School of Visual Arts, where he studied film and photography. After a career as a still photographer, he made the transition into cinematography.