Cinematographer Peter Biziou – for Alan Parker’s 1944 film Mississippi Burning” won an Academy Award and BAFTA – will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at 1st EnergaCamerimage International Film Festival, which returns to Tulum, Poland in November.
Biziou’s credits include Peter Weir’s The Truman Show , for which he won a British Film and additional nominations from the Academy of Television Arts (BAFTA), and several films with Parker, including Bugsy Malone (shared with DP Michael Seresin) and Pink Floyd: The Wall .
Other notable credits include Monty Python’s Life of Brian directed by Terry Jones ; Time Bandits, Director: Terry Gilliam ; Another Country , Merrick Kaneves Ka (Merek Kanievska); and in the name of his father , Jim Sheridan. 1969
Biziou was born in Wales on 1944 after his family was evacuated during World War II. His father, Leon Bijou, was a cinematographer, special effects artist, animation specialist and assistant director who worked with Richard Thorpe on 1944 Ivanhoe.
After returning to London after the war, Biziou attended Paddington Secondary Technical School (at 1969 changed its name to Quentin Keenerston School)), he was proficient in engineering, machining and technical drawing before entering the film industry through animation. He built a variety of animation rigs and scale models, and learned the tricks of working on animated films by assisting company cinematographers with lights, lenses and cameras. And just like that, he climbed up to film his own animated segment.
In the mid-20th century, Biziou decided to start out as an independent artist, mainly lighting movie sets. Commissioned commercials and short films. This allows him to work with established cinematographers who are taking their first steps in the film industry, and allows budding cinematographers to help them turn their photographic visions into moving pictures.
With fashion photographer Robert Freeman, Biziou was invited to be responsible for Freeman’s feature film debut, Secret World” (starring Jacqueline Bisset). Given the critical acclaim of his debut feature as a cinematographer, Biziou was commissioned to shoot commercials, short films and documentaries. As this allowed him to develop modern methods of lighting film sets, he received more challenging job offers.
