Oliver Stapleton, BSC, has worked with a wide array of critically acclaimed filmmakers to make some of the UK & Hollywood's best stories. His career spans decades, with a diverse slate of films from "My Beautiful Laundrette" in 1984, to Michael Hoffman's "Dear Mr Vidal" in 2018.
Oliver's collaborations with directors like Lasse Hallström and Stephen Frears prove him a cinematic force to be reckoned with. "The Cider House Rules," from 1999, marked his first collaboration with Hallström, and they have since made a total of five films together. He has worked with Frears on seven films, beginning with "My Beautiful Laundrette." He's also worked with Michael Hoffman five times, including the two-time Academy Award-winning epic, "Restoration" in 1995. The shortlist of actors he has worked with is very impressive: Meryl Streep, Anjelica Huston, Anette Benning, Michelle Pheiffer (2), Jennifer Aniston, Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman, Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Joachim Phoenix - to name a few.
Oliver has a way of touching every genre in the industry, with films like the musical "Absolute Beginners" of 1986, the 1988 sci-fi comedy "Earth Girls Are Easy," (which earned him an Independent Spirit Award nomination) to Guillermo Del Torro's "Don't be Afraid of the Dark" (2010) . He began his career shooting documentaries and music videos, and won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Cinematography for his work with the band, A-Ha, for "Take On Me." He has also worked on many video projects with great musicians, such as David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Eddie Grant and The Human League.
His approach is to treat every film as though it is his first and uncover the appropriate style for the movie in collaboration with the Director. He has conducted many epic and legendary masterclasses at Camerimage in Poland, and is co-head of Cinematography at the National Film and Television School in the UK.
This marks a return to the school that trained him from 1976 to 1979: and opens a whole new chapter in his life. The bonds he formed at the school led to years of work with Directors Julien Temple and Sandy Johnson which enabled him to get started rapidly in the Industry during the 1980’s.
