ALAR KIVILO lensed the box office hit “The Blind Side,” which was nominated for an Oscar® for Best Picture and won the Best Actress award for Sandra Bullock. 

A native of Montreal, Kivilo began his cinematography career shooting documentaries and short films, including “Boys and Girls,” which won an Academy Award® for Best Live Action Short in 1984.  Kivilo next began shooting music videos, which eventually led to commercials and the formation of his own company, Propeller.  For the next ten years, he directed and shot many Bessie, Clio and Cannes Award-winning commercials. In recent years he has been directing and shooting the award winning Newfoundland and Labrador tourism commercials. “Ancient Land” won a Gold Lion at Cannes for cinematography.

In 1987, Kivilo lensed his first feature, “Da,” followed by Sam Raimi’s “A Simple Plan.”  He has since served as the director of photography on such films as “Frequency,” “The Glass House,” “Hart’s War,” “Aurora Borealis,” “The Ice Harvest,” “The Lake House,” “The Lookout,” “Year One,” “The Blindside,” “Bad Teacher,” “The Lucky One,” “Fallen,” and “The Choice.”

For his work on the small screen, he received an American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Motion Picture/Mini-Series Television for the acclaimed HBO movie “Taking Chance,” starring Kevin Bacon.  Kivilo previously earned Emmy and ASC Award nominations for the HBO biopic “Gotti,” and an ASC Award nomination for the miniseries “The Invaders.” His other television credits include the HBO movies “Normal,” “Weapons of Mass Distraction” and “Rebound.” 

Kivilo is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Society of Cinematographers, the Canadian Society of Cinematographers and the Estonian Society of Cinematographers.