“When we were filming ‘Ameli’, at that time I wasn`t thinking that I am doing anything special, I didn`t have that kind of feeling. I wasn`t guided by the though ‘Now I am doing something extraordinary’. However, I was happy when we were shooting the film“, said the great Bruno Delbonnel in the crowded hall of the Manaki cinema in Bitola. There was great interest to hear more about Delbonnel`s life and career, the man who won the Golden Camera 300 for lifetime oeuvre at the 55 th edition of the ICFF „Manaki Brothers“. 

The humble Delbonnel said at the start of the master chat that he was just a cinematographer, a father and an ordinary man. At the age of 44, he achieved worldwide fame with „Amélie“, creating a visual masterpiece reflecting Amelie`s fairytale-like and unusual world. The audience watched a few scenes from „Amelie“.

„It was the third feature film I`d worked on. That film changed my life, it was a huge success. I was happy when we made the film. That was 25 years ago. I used 4 filters to get that bloody red color in the film. I`m not going to do that anymore“, Delbonnel jokingly said.

He said that if he had to make the same movie now, he wouldn`t have shot it the same way at all. But the point is, as he added, to grow, to mature and not to do the same things again. 

„If the film is good, everyone praises the director and the cinematographer, but if the film isn`t good, then they say the director isn`t good and nobody mentions the cinematographer, and that`s good“, Delbonnel joked.  

Bruno Delbonnel is the newest member of the „Manaki Brothers“ Club of the Greats. Going from being a laureate of the Special Golden Camera 300 for his outstanding contribution to world film art, awarded to him at the Manaki Brothers Festival in 2011, now 13 years later Delbonnel joins the world`s cinematic greats, now adorned with the Golden Camera 300 for his lifetime oeuvre.

He was born in 1957 in Nancy, France. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1978 from the Ecole Supérieure Etudes Cinematographique (ESEC), a popular and respected school of cinematographic studies in Paris. After graduating, Delbonnel developed an affinity for directing as well. He directed a feature-length documentary inspired by the circus world in 1989, „The Grand Circus“, but then continued his career as a cinematographer, creating an enviable oeuvre in collaboration with many notable French and international directors.