Attila Szalay

Attila Szalay ASC, CSC, HSC was born in Budapest, Hungary and immigrated with his parents to England in 1967. They moved to Calgary, Canada a year later where he became interested in filmmaking in the seventh grade. The progressive school allowed him to delve into cinematography and by the time he graduated, he had decided to pursue this as a career. He attended Sheridan College in Ontario, graduating with an honors degree in film production and cinematography, after which he began working as a camera assistant on National Film Board documentaries, corporate films and music videos. Between 1990 and 1996, he worked with his mentor Laszlo George, CSC, HSC on more than 30 film projects as his "A Camera Operator." Szalay became a director of photography in the mid-1990's. His feature and television credits include The Outer Limits, The X-Files, Critical Assembly, Smallville, The L. Word, Peacemakers, Touching Evil, The Mountain, To Love and Die, Masters of Horror, Touch the Top of the World, Iron Road, Fear Itself, Reaper, Shattered and the epic 8 hour mini-series "The Pillars of the Earth" produced by Ridley Scott and directed by Sergio Mimica-Gezzan. Szalay earned CSC nominations for Best Cinematography for the pilot of Peacemakers and two episodes of Smallville. He won the 2009 Leo Award and the 2010 Canadian Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Cinematography for the mini-series "Iron Road". In 2011 he received an Emmy Award nomination for his work on the mini-series "Pillars of the Earth". In November of 2013, Szalay was invited to join the American Society of Cinematographers as a full member.