Photo Credit: Sebastian Gabsch,  First Steps – German Young Talent Awards





Caroline Spreitzenbart is an Austrian cinematographer. Her images explore the narrative layers of a film and translate storytelling visions into visual perception: through color, spatial perspective, and framing. She studied cinematography at the University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), mentored by Tom Fährmann and Peter Zeitlinger, and was a DAAD scholar at the CCC Film Institute in Mexico City.

The hybrid feature film Life is not a competition, but I’m winning (dir. Julia Fuhr Mann) premiered at the Venice International Film Festival (Settimana Internazionale della Critica). The Guardian described her cinematography as “woozy stylized visuals with the color temperatures turned up to the max.”
For her work on the film, she received the Michael Ballhaus Award at the First Steps – German Newcomer Awards (in partnership with Netflix, Warner Bros. and Amazon Prime).

She was also awarded the National Competition of Women Directors of Photography at IFFF Dortmund+Cologne, Germany.

Spreitzenbart lensed Storm & Stress, which won the Audience Award at Return Filmfest, as well as the Best Mid-Length Film Award at Biberacher Filmfestspiele, and It Would Be a Different Sea, which premiered at the Berlinale as part of Eleven Tomorrows – Berlinale Meets Football.

Her narrative and documentary work has screened at festivals including Venice, Berlinale, Locarno, DocLisboa, MIX Copenhagen, Frameline, PÖFF, BFI Flare London, NewFest NY, Dok.fest, Diagonale, and Crossing Europe.

She is a member of the Deutsche Filmakademie, a Rising Member of Cinematographinnen, and a member of Apertura.