Amy Belling : Cinematographer

Amy Belling just completed her Masters of Fine Arts studies in cinematography at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles, and is prepping to shoot A.J. Bond's psychological thriller Wisteria (set to shoot in Northern Ontario) and Oliver Gallagher's period drama (which wrapped location scouting in Milford, Pennsylvania). She has years of experience shooting critically acclaimed narrative short films, international documentaries, second unit on a 35mm feature film, corporate videos, PSA's and music videos.

Belling is a talented young cinematographer and Genie-nominated producer who graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2003 with a double major in film production and theatre. Her career took off early with an award-winning graduating film project; Why the Anderson Children Didn't Come to Dinner (2003) premiered to great acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival. Sixty film festival screenings and numerous awards later, the film has aired on CBC, The Comedy Network and PBS. Subsequent shorts include Once a Fish (2005) for Citytv, which premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival; Regarding Sarah (2006), which garnered numerous international awards and a Genie nomination in 2008; and The Saddest Boy in the World (2006), which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival - as well as at Slamdance, Rotterdam and Karlovy Vary - and for which Amy also served as director of photography. Both of the latter shorts also aired on CBC. She is the associate producer, post-production coordinator and 2nd unit DOP of the theatrical feature Mount Pleasant (2006).

Television experience includes working as cinematographer and production manager for the first season of Bravo's documentary series On Screen! shooting in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver, as well as subsequent documentary shoots in Haiti and Korea. In 2005, Amy attended the Berlinale Talent Campus as a cinematographer delegate where Kodak highlighted her work, and in both 2003 and 2007 she was a Leo Award nominee for Best Cinematography in a Short Drama and Best Short. In 2006, Amy attended the Toronto Talent Lab, for which she created a self-portrait which was chosen by Motorola to screen as one of two trailers at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival. The Comic-con award-winning short film Hirsute (2007) which she produced and shot also premiered at TIFF that year, and was the first production from The Siblings; followed by Madame Perrault's Bluebeard (Clermont-Ferrand 2011).

Her American Film Institute thesis film Le Jeu des Soldats (2010) was a National Finalist at the 2011 Student Academy Awards and won gold at the 2011 BAFTA/Los Angeles Student Film Awards. Most recently, Amy lensed acclaimed Canadian director Mina Shum's Hip Hop Mom (2011), a Striscia TV pilot, a series of commercials for the American Pet Products Association, a music video for celebrated record production/songwriting team Rockmafia and the holiday special How Shananay Stole Christmas for Shane Dawson's wildly popular Youtube Channel, which is the fifth most subscibed to channel of all time. 

Always multi-tasking, Belling spearheaded the UBC Film Production Alumni Association (helping to save the UBC Film Programme from cancellation) in 2007. Belling is the recipient of several career achievement awards including the Kodak Image Award at the Women in Film Spotlight Gala Awards in 2007, the 2009 Daryl Duke Scholarship, UBC's 2010 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, and most recently a 2011 Leo Award for Best Cinematography in a Short Drama for Madame Perrault's Bluebeard.

Belling currently resides and works in Los Angeles, and holds passports for Canada and the EU.

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