ALLEN DAVIAU, ASC BIO

Allen Daviau, ASC began his career shooting commercials and music promos in Los Angeles, and subsequently television movies. He had three independent feature credits when Steven Spielberg noticed one of his TV movies. Daviau shot his first mainstream feature for Spielberg, E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. It earned the first of five Oscar nominations for Daviau. The others were for The Color Purple, Avalon, Empire of the Sun and Bugsy. He won ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards for the latter two films and the British Academy Award for Empire. His body of narrative filmwork includes The Falcon and the Snowman, Defending Your Life, Fearless and the Astronaut’s Wife. Daviau has represented the American Society of Cinematographers and the International Cinematographers Guild on the Artists Rights Foundation and he has made several trips to Washington, D.C., to lobby for both artists’ rights and film preservation issues.