20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Powys County Times
Powys Oscar winner has 'fond memories' of Coleg Cambria
A Powys Oscar winner has thanked the help he had from his former college.
The acclaimed cinematographer Lol Crawley who won an Oscar for his work in the epic The Brutalist has thanked the lecturers and colleagues who played a part in his success.
Earlier this year he received an Academy Award for epic period drama The Brutalist, having earlier picked up a BAFTA and accolades from the British Society of Cinematographers for his work on the film.
Having been raised in Powys, Lol went on to study for a BTEC National Diploma in Audio Visual Studies at NEWI Cartrefle in Wrexham – now Coleg Cambria.
'I had just the one year studying in Wrexham and it was a long time ago, but I have many fond memories,' said Lol.
'I did the foundation course and then worked that summer as a camera assistant on a movie called The Englishman Who Went up a Hill but Came down a Mountain in Wales before moving on to Northumbria University and later making short films.
'However, my first feature as a cinematographer was Ballast in 2008, for which I won an award at The Sundance Film Festival. After that I was on my way.'
'It would be lovely to return home one day and do something in North and Mid-Wales, it's a beautiful part of the world and to film there would be fantastic.'
The Brutalist which sees a Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and architect escape post-war Europe to the United States, where he struggles to achieve the American Dream until a wealthy client changes his life.
The film was his third outing with director Brady Corbet – and there are plans for a fourth collaboration in the future.
Lol was praised for shooting the piece on VistaVision - the first English-language feature to do so since the early sixties - and is thrilled the approach was so well received by the Academy.
'It's been great, the whole build-up began last year, and I am so happy and grateful to receive these awards, it's been quite remarkable,' he said.
'There has been a lot of buzz but funnily enough the next two movies to be released that I shot were completed before the Oscars, so they may not be what people expect after winning the award.
'But I am reading great scripts with great filmmakers, and I will be doing Brady's next film so it's a very exciting time, he's as ambitious as ever so I'm looking forward to that.'
This was not Lol's first involvement with an award-winning movie and is 'staking his claim at being one of the best in the world'.
Among the film and television titles he has worked on are Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Four Lions, White Noise, Black Mirror, Vox Lux, The Childhood of a Leader, One Night in Turin, and Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.
'In a sense it's probably an easier world now, as when I started it was very expensive and there was no real digital filmmaking, the technology has become more accessible and less elitist,' he said.
'I guess if they were going to take anything away from this it would be just to go out there and do it, to believe in themselves and crack on and work hard.
'It's not easy but if you don't get off the starting blocks because you believe it can't happen then you've failed at the first hurdle.'
