Lula Carvalho

Lula Carvalho
Born	1977 (age 46–47) Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Lula Carvalho, ASC is a Brazilian cinematographer.

His body of work includes the acclaimed features Elite Squad (2007) and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within (2010), RoboCop (2014) and the blockbuster Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014).

As of 2022, Carvalho is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

Career

Carvalho grew up on film sets, working with his father, the acclaimed cinematographer Walter Carvalho. He learned how to load film magazines for the camera department at age of 10, started working as a second camera assistant upon finishing high school and became a professional first photographer assistant at age of 20.

Carvalho pulled focus on over nineteen acclaimed Brazilian features, including Fernando Meirelles' City of God, Walter Salles' Behind the Sun, and Héctor Babenco's Carandiru.

During this time, Carvalho also worked at second units as a cinematographer and as a camera operator on features. He also completed cinematography and still photography classes at New York University and the School of Visual Arts in New York.

In 2005, Carvalho shot his first feature as a cinematographer, Incuráveis, directed by Gustavo Accioli. He went on to shoot Elite Squad, directed by José Padilha which won the Golden Bear at the 2008 Berlin Film Festival; A Festa da Menina Morta, directed by Matheus Natchergaele which was an official selection in Un Certain Regard at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival; December, directed by Selton Mello; Budapest, directed by Walter Carvalho along with three documentaries.

In 2008, Carvalho was awarded the Best Cinematography Prize by both the Brazilian Cinema Academy and the International Press Correspondents Association in Brazil (ACIE) for Elite Squad, which also led him to a nomination in the 2008 Camerimage Festival, in Poland. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, the follow-up to Elite Squad, and Carvalho was once again awarded the Best Cinematography Prize by both the Brazilian Cinema Academy and the International Press Correspondents Association in Brazil (ACIE), in 2011. In 2008 Carvalho shot the Argentinian Production Felicitas and was finalist for the Condor Award 2010 for that.

In 2012, Carvalho shot the science fiction RoboCop, his first American feature. In 2013, he shot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as well as its sequel in 2016. And in 2014, he shot the Netflix series Narcos, in Colombia.

In 2013, Carvalho won the ABC (Association of the Brazilian Cinematographers) Award for the movie A Wolf at the Door, and again won the ABC Award for Bingo: The King of the Mornings in 2015.

In 2017, Carvalho shot episodes of the Netflix's Narcos Mexico, The Mechanism and the Brazilian documentary Police Killing which won the first prize of It Is All True Film Festival, participated in the IDFA festival and was short listed for the Academy’s best documentary.

In 2019 shot the non fictional Amazon Series All Or Nothing following the Brazilian national soccer team throughout its participation at the South American Cup.

He is now based in Brooklyn, New York.

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2004	Uma Estrela Pra Ioiô	Bruno Safadi
	A Última Fábrica	Felipe Nepomuceno
2007	Trópico das Cabras	Fernando Coimbra
2014	Useless Landscape	José Padilha	Segment of Rio, I Love You
2015	Blume	Felipe Nepomuceno
2019	Estrondo
2020	Cidade Inerte	Vellas
2024	Buyback	Jared Goodman

Feature film

Year	Title	Director
2005	Incuráveis	Gustavo Acioli
2007	Elite Squad	José Padilha
	Meu Nome é Dindi	Bruno Safadi
2008	A Festa da Menina Morta	Matheus Nachtergaele
	December	Selton Mello
2009	Budapest	Walter Carvalho
	Felicitas	María Teresa Costantini
2010	Elite Squad: The Enemy Within	José Padilha
2011	Juras Eternas 2	Luiz Henrique Rios Rosane Svartman
	Estamos Juntos	Toni Venturi
	A Hora e a Vez de Augusto Matraga	Vinicius Coimbra
2012	Artificial Paradises	Marcos Prado
	À Beira do Caminho	Breno Silveira
2013	Éden	Bruno Safadi
	A Wolf at the Door	Fernando Coimbra
2014	RoboCop	José Padilha
	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles	Jonathan Liebesman
2016	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows	Dave Green
2017	Bingo: The King of the Mornings	Daniel Rezende
2018	Entebbe	José Padilha
	10 Segundos para Vencer	José Alvarenga Jr.
TBA	Ary	André Weller

Documentary film

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2006	Moacir Arte Bruta	Walter Carvalho
	Fabricando Tom Zé	Décio Matos Júnior
2009	Domingos	Maria Ribeiro	With Manuel Águas
2010	Secrets of the Tribe	José Padilha	With Reynaldo Zangrandi
2011	Carta Para o Futuro	Renato Martins	Also producer
2012	Raul - O Início, o Fim e o Meio	Walter Carvalho Leonardo Gudel
2017	Um Filme de Cinema	Walter Carvalho	With Bacco Andrade, Pablo Baião, Jacques Cheuiche and Pedro von Krüger
2018	Auto de Resistência	Himself Natasha Neri
	Eduardo Galeano Vagamundo	Felipe Nepomuceno	With Breno Cunha, Guga Millet and Pedro von Krüger

Documentary short

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2001	Atrocidades Maravilhosas	Himself Renato Martins Pedro Peregrino
2006	Brasil	Felipe Nepomuceno
2013	O Sonho de Ser Camisa 10	Pedro von Krüger	With Jacques Cheuiche
2014	Caetana	Felipe Nepomuceno Pedro von Krüger

Television

Year	Title	Director	Notes
2006	Estúdio 66
2011	Força-Tarefa	José Alvarenga Jr. Rogério Gomes	2 episodes
	Falcón	Pete Travis	Episode "The Blind Man of Seville"
2015	Narcos	José Padilha Guillermo Navarro Andrés Baiz Fernando Coimbra	8 episodes
2018	The Mechanism	José Padilha	Episode "Lava Jato"
2020	Narcos: Mexico	Andrés Baiz	Episode "Salva El Tigre"
	26 Poemas Hoje
2023	The Gilded Age	Michael Engler Crystle Roberson	4 episodes

External links

• Official website