Lael Utnik is an award-winning cinematographer whose decade-long career spans 7 feature films, over 900 television commercials, and productions across more than 30 countries including Israel’s #1 most-watched film in cinema history.

 

In 2025, he won the Best Cinematography Award at the Israel Film Awards, and his theatrical releases have consistently ranked among the most watched Israeli films of their respective release years.

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For Lael, the camera is never just a tool - it is an active character within the story, with its own perspective and purpose. His approach combines cinematic craftsmanship with technological innovation, using movement, composition, and light to reveal the emotional core of each scene and create a deeper connection between audiences and the characters.

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As cinematographer of Saving Shuli San, Lael was part of a record-breaking box office phenomenon that became the most-watched theatrical release in Israeli cinema history and one of the highest-grossing Israeli films of all time.

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In The Performance, based on Arthur Miller’s story set in 1937, Lael collaborated with director Shira Piven to create an authentic visual language inspired by the era. Combining modern digital cinematography with an original 1930s Bolex camera, he created a unique cinematic experience that blurred the line between past and present, bringing audiences closer to the emotional world of the story.

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With Eva’s Stories, Lael explored a new cinematic language for vertical storytelling. Shot entirely on an iPhone and created for Instagram and TikTok, the project used the natural visual language of younger generations from selfies to everyday moments captured spontaneously to make a historical story feel immediate and personal. By embracing the vertical format and the platforms themselves, the project transformed social media into a cinematic space, reaching hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide.

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Across every project, Lael continues to explore the relationship between image, emotion, and technology — creating cinematic experiences that allow audiences not only to watch a story, but to feel present within it.