Auteur of the Day: Anna Vialova

So much of the beauty of film comes from cinematography. The director of photography is the one who has to physically paint the picture for audiences, lining up shots perfectly and giving viewers an eye into the action. The director may call the shots, but the cinematographer is the one actually filming shots. 

Our featured auteur Anna Vialova has a history of constructing gorgeous shots. After earning a B.A. in Fine Arts from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kiev, Vialova started out in fashion photography. While working in photography, she found a connection to the avant-garde nature of the medium and realized she wanted to take that energy to video.

In 2016, Vialova decided to enter the New York Film Academy at the Los Angeles campus. While at the academy, she was the only student to focus solely on cinematography in her class. As she finished her degree, Vialova also worked around the globe in a variety of fashion weeks, filming and photographing the shows. After she finished her degree in 2018, Vialova began to focus solely on film cinematography. 

Vialova’s resume includes the shorts I Just Wanted to See You and Take Care, both of which are available to view on No Longer Network. Take Care was Vialova’s director debut, where two friends come back together after a long time apart. 

I Just Wanted to See You features a photographer stalking a young girl and the encounter that changes both their lives. Vialova not only produced the film but is responsible for the cinematography as well.

Most recently, Vialova worked as the cinematographer on the short film Things That Fall, a love story between two outsiders of society who come together even though they’re fearful. One is a deaf woman, the other dealing with auditory psychosis. In a movie so focused on audio, it was important to find a way to bring sound to life in a visual format.

Yet even with the difficult subject, Vialova brings beauty to every shot of the eight-minute short. She brings a personal touch not only to showcasing Alex’s struggle with auditory hallucinations, but how he’s willing to put his fears aside for Carly, a deaf classmate. We feel the pain of these hallucinations through Vialova’s shot composition and focus on Alex’s reaction to them. 

Things That Fall has been featured at a variety of film festivals around the world with positive remarks from the juries at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, the Barcelona International Film Festival, and Raindance Film Festival, to name just a few. Praise has come from every direction for Vialova’s shot composition, and it’s no surprise why. 

Next up for Vialova after Things That Fall is No Longer Perfect, a story about a woman getting an abortion and her best friend supporting her through that after finding out she’s infertile. No Longer Perfect is in post-production and expected to start its festival run by the end of 2019. 

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To keep up with Vialova’s upcoming projects, you can follow the cinematographer on Facebook and Instagram, or check out her website here.