Claro Receives Cinematographer Award for “Melancholia”

It’s definitely not the end of the world for Manuel Alberto Claro

The 41-year-old Chilean cinematographer picked up the Carlo Di Palma European Cinematographer Award at the European Film Awards—the continent’s version of the Oscars—for his mesmerizing lensing of the planet’s final days in Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia.

Melancholia - Manuel Alberto Claro

The apocalyptic drama stars Kirsten Dunst as a chronically depressed, self-involved bride getting married at the same time that a mysterious new planet threatens to collide into the Earth.

Claro, who has lived in Denmark since his early childhood, has received critical acclaim since the film’s release for his oh-so-stunning imagery, which includes an eight-minute visual overture consisting of a gorgeous, slow-motion montage set to Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, which helps underscore and enrich the entire film.

It could be first of many honors this awards season for Claro, who studied still photography at Milan’s Istitutto Europeo di Design and worked as an assistant photographer in Milan, New York and Copenhagen before enrolling at the National Film School of Denmark. He graduated in 2001. Claro’s previous award-winning projects include: Allegro, Dark Horse and Reconstruction.