Ava Berkofsky Welcomed Into Society Membership
The cinematographer’s credits include Insecure, Free in Deed and Share.
The cinematographer’s credits include Insecure, Free in Deed and Share.
New ASC member Ava Berkofsky was born in Wales, though raised between London and California, and found early inspiration in the works of photographers Robert Frank, Susan Meiselas and Gordon Parks. Berkofsky, who prefers they/them pronouns, aims to find “poetry and humanity in what can be a brutal social landscape,” they say. Berkofsky earned a BFA in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, followed by an MFA in cinematography from the American Film Institute.
Early in their career, Berkofsky worked on a series of photography projects that documented life in women’s prisons in the American South. Based on this, Berkofsky was offered the first of many documentary film opportunities. While shooting these projects, the cinematographer traveled around the world and “explored how to translate and understand different human experiences and points of view through storytelling steeped in time and place. It’s this foundation in visual storytelling and human connection that served so well when making the transition to narrative cinematography,” they say.
Berkofsky’s narrative feature work includes Free in Deed, which earned the cinematographer an Independent Spirit Award nomination. Their other feature credits include Share, which won multiple awards at the Sundance Film Festival, and The Sky Is Everywhere.
Berkofsky has received two Emmy nominations as well as an ASC Award nomination for their work on the HBO comedic drama Insecure. (Watch Berkofsky and Kira Kelly, ASC discuss their work on the show in an episode of Clubhouse Conversations, here.) Berkofsky’s television work also includes Grand Army, Woke, Vida and This Is Me.
