Brian Tufano
British cinematographer (1939–2023)
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Brian Richard Tufano BSC (1 December 1939 – 12 January 2023) was an English cinematographer.
Brian Tufano | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 December 1939[1][2] Shepherd's Bush, London, England |
| Died | 12 January 2023 (aged 83) |
| Years active | 1963–2011 |
| Organisation | British Society of Cinematographers |
Tufano was admitted to the British Society of Cinematographers and won the 2001 BAFTA Award for Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television.[3]
Life and career
Tufano began his career at the BBC as a projectionist, working his way up to become a cameraman with the BBC film department in 1963.[1] During his time at the BBC, Tufano worked with directors including Stephen Frears and Alan Parker. In 1992 he was assigned to the series Mr. Wroe's Virgins and worked with director Danny Boyle.[4]
Tufano went freelance in the mid-1970s - his first feature was the 1978 film The Sailor's Return with director Jack Gold.
During the 1980s, Tufano spent time working in the United States,[5] including additional cinematography for Jordan Cronenweth on Blade Runner.[6]
Boyle worked with Tufano on his feature debut, Shallow Grave,[7] and continued to work with Tufano on the 1996 films Trainspotting and the 1997 film A Life Less Ordinary. Boyle and Tufano also worked together on the 2008 short film Alien Love Triangle.[4]
Tufano worked with director Menhaj Huda on his first feature film, Jump Boy, in 1999, and they went on to work together on the 2006 feature film Kidulthood.[8] Tufano also shot the 2008 sequel Adulthood, which was directed by Noel Clarke. Huda and Tufano worked together on the 2011 feature, Everywhere and Nowhere.[9]
From 2003 to 2016, Tufano was Head of Cinematography at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield.[10] Before his death, he was a Teaching Fellow at the school.[11]
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | The Big Switch | Pete Walker | |
| 1978 | The Sailor's Return | Jack Gold | |
| 1979 | Quadrophenia | Franc Roddam | |
| 1981 | Riding High | Ross Cramer | |
| 1983 | The Lords of Discipline | Franc Roddam | |
| 1984 | Dreamscape | Joseph Ruben | |
| 1988 | War Party | Franc Roddam | |
| 1989 | Windprints | David Wicht | |
| 1994 | Shallow Grave | Danny Boyle | |
| 1996 | Trainspotting | ||
| True Blue | Ferdinand Fairfax | ||
| 1997 | The Life of Stuff | Simon Donald | |
| 1997 | A Life Less Ordinary | Danny Boyle | |
| 1998 | What Rats Won't Do | Alastair Reid | |
| 1999 | East is East | Damien O'Donnell | |
| Virtual Sexuality | Nick Hurran | ||
| Women Talking Dirty | Coky Giedroyc | ||
| 2000 | Billy Elliot | Stephen Daldry | |
| 2001 | Late Night Shopping | Saul Metzstein | |
| 2001 | Last Orders | Fred Schepisi | |
| 2002 | Once Upon a Time in the Midlands | Shane Meadows | |
| 2006 | Kidulthood | Menhaj Huda | |
| 2007 | I Could Never Be Your Woman | Amy Heckerling | |
| 2008 | Adulthood | Menhaj Huda | |
| 2010 | Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll | Mat Whitecross | With Christopher Ross |
| 2011 | Everywhere and Nowhere | Menhaj Huda |
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Alien Love Triangle | Danny Boyle |
Television
TV movies
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | A Few Castles in Spain | Kevin Billington | Documentary film |
| Isadora Duncan, the Biggest Dancer in the World | Ken Russell | With Dick Bush | |
| 1975 | The Evacuees | Alan Parker | |
| Daft As a Brush | Stephen Frears | ||
| Moll Flanders | Donald McWhinnie | ||
| Three Men in a Boat | Stephen Frears | ||
| 1982 | Murder Is Easy | Claude Whatham | |
| 1982 | The Wall | Robert Markowitz | |
| 1986 | Trapped in Silence | Michael Tuchner | |
| 1996 | Element of Doubt | Christopher Morahan | |
| 2008 | My Zinc Bed | Anthony Page |
TV series
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | Out of the Unknown | Peter Cregeen | Episode "Get Off My Cloud" |
| 1969 | Take Three Girls | John Matthews | Episode "Avril: Devon Violets" |
| 1970 | Thirty-Minute Theatre | Michael Tuchner | Episode "All My Own Army" |
| 1972 | The Sextet | Alan Bridges | Episode "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" |
| 1974 | Play of the Month | James MacTaggart | Episode "Robinson Crusoe" |
| 1976 | BBC2 Playhouse | Stephen Frears | Episode "Play Things" |
| 1977 | Centre Play | Himself | Episode "Rehearsal" |
| 1977-1978 | BBC2 Play of the Week | Clive Rees Clive Donner |
Segments "Arnhem: The Story of an Escape" and "She Fell Among Thieves" |
| 1982 | Five-Minute Films | Mike Leigh | 5 episodes |
| 1994 | Common As Muck | Metin Hüseyin | 3 episodes |
| 1996 | Silent Witness | Harry Hook Mike Barker Noella Smith |
6 episodes |
Miniseries
| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1971 | The Search for the Nile | Fred Burnley | With John Baker |
| 1973 | Wessex Tales | Gavin Millar | Episode "An Imaginative Woman" |
| 1974 | Dial M for Murder | Gerald Blake | Episode "The Vineyard" |
| 1976 | The Glittering Prizes | Waris Hussein | Episode An Early Life |
| 1977 | Supernatural | Alan Cooke | Episode "Mr Nightingale" |
| 1989 | The Endless Game | Bryan Forbes | |
| 1993 | Mr. Wroe's Virgins | Danny Boyle | |
| 1994 | Middlemarch | Anthony Page | |
| 1995 | The Choir | Ferdinand Fairfax |
Awards and nominations
For his work on Late Night Shopping, Tufano was nominated for the Technical Achievement Award at the Evening Standard British Film Awards.[13]
Tufano won the Special Jury Prize at the 2002 British Independent Film Awards.[14] Tufano received the BSC ARRI John Alcott Memorial Award in 2015,[15] and went on to receive the British Society of Cinematographers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.[10][16]
BAFTA Awards
| Year | Title | Category | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Middlemarch | Television: Best Photography and Lighting (Fiction/Entertainment) | Nominated | [17] |
| 2001 | Billy Elliot | Film: Best Cinematography | Nominated | [18] |
| n/a | Television Craft: Special Award | Won | [3] |