Crystel Fournier

Biography

Crystel Fournier is a French cinematographer known for her work in European cinema and for her collaborations with acclaimed filmmakers such as Céline Sciamma and Sebastian Meise. She studied at the École Supérieure d'Audiovisuel (ESAV) in Toulouse from 1990 to 1994 and graduated from La Fémis in Paris in 1998.

Career

Fournier began working professionally as a cinematographer in the late 1990s. Her early feature-film work included Clément (2001), Carnages (2002), Saltimbank (2003), Pourquoi (pas) le Brésil (2004), Sauf le respect que je vous dois (2005), and Rêves de poussière (2006).

One of her most important professional collaborations has been with director Céline Sciamma. Fournier served as cinematographer on Sciamma's Water Lilies (2007), Tomboy (2011), and Girlhood (2014), helping create the intimate visual style associated with these coming-of-age films.

International Work

Fournier has worked on productions in several countries and across different genres. Her credits include A Place on Earth (2013), These Are the Rules (2014), The Boss's Daughter (2015), Nico, 1988 (2017), Miss Marx (2020), Wildfire (2020), Great Freedom (2021), Chiara (2022), and Drift (2023).

She was also the director of photography on Eleanor Coppola's Paris Can Wait (2016), starring Diane Lane, Alec Baldwin, and Arnaud Viard.

Awards and Recognition

Fournier received major recognition for her cinematography on Great Freedom (2021), directed by Sebastian Meise. She won the European Film Award for European Cinematographer in 2021 for the film.

She is a member of the Association Française des directeurs de la photographie Cinématographique (AFC) and was invited to join the cinematography branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2016.