Multi-awarded awarded cinematographer Vanja Černjul is the third member of this year's jury for the main festival award, Motovun Propeler. Černjul is replacing PaweÅ‚ Pawlikowski, who is unable to attend the festival.
Vanja Černjul was born in 1968 in Zagreb, Croatia. After graduating from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1995 he moved to New York to get his Masters from Graduate Film School at NYU. Vanja has DP'd 15 feature films such as this year's winner of the Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award – "City Island" (Raymond De Felitta, director) and "Wristcutters: A Love Story" (Goran Dukic, director). He has received the Best Cinematography Award at Aspen Shortfest for "Fishbelly White" (Michael Burke, director), a Kodak Vision Award at Avignon/New York Film Festival for "The Photographer" (Jeremy Stein, director) and The Best Cinematography Award at Stockholm International Film Festival for "Rain" (Katherine Lindberg, director).
His recent work includes the Emmy winning pilot for the ABC/Touchstone TV series "Ugly Betty" (Richard Shepard, director), Season 1 of the Showtime/Lion's Gate TV series "Nurse Jackie" and Season 1 of the HBO TV series "Bored to Death". Vanja was nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for his work on the NBC's comedy series "30 Rock".
Vanja Cernjul is an active member of the International Cinematographer's Guild (IATSE Local 600), Imago (European Federation of Cinematographers), HFS (Croatian Society of Cinematographers) and The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
