Irene Cruz AEC (born 1987, Madrid) is a Spanish cinematographer and visual artist based between Berlin and Madrid. Her work is recognized for its poetic approach to light and color, blending sensitivity, atmosphere, and emotional depth across fiction, documentary, and commercial projects. Cruz began her career in fine art photography, completing a Master’s in Fine Art Photography and later earning a scholarship to study Cinematography at EFTI (Madrid). Her feature film work as Director of Photography includes Diana (2018), Proven Facts (2021), Mago (2023), and Janine zieht aufs Land (2024), which premiered at the 75th Berlinale Forum. She was also one of the cinematographers of the BBC/Hulu docuseries Planet Sex (2022), presented by Cara Delevingne. In addition to narrative cinema, she has directed and shot numerous fashion films and commercials for international brands such as Dior, Levi’s, DIM and N26. Her visual language extends into the realm of video art, with installations created for the Deutsche Oper Berlin (2014–2017). In 2021, she was named one of Canon Europe’s three Filmmakers of the Future. Cruz has worked internationally in Spain, Germany, the United States, and Japan, and her projects often explore the intersection of identity, memory, and the natural world. She is an active member of the AEC (Spanish Society of Cinematographers), the CIMA Association of Women Filmmakers, and Women in Cinematography (WiC), advocating for visibility and equity in the film industry. Beyond the set, she teaches cinematography at The Core School (Madrid) and collaborates with Leica Akademie and other European institutions. She currently lives in Berlin, where she continues to develop projects that merge art, technology, and human emotion through the lens of light.
