Major brands have been turning to cinematographer Lucia Zavarcikova to bring their stories to life. A graduate of The AFI Institute in Los Angeles and the Academy of Art in San Francisco, Zavarcikova has earned a reputation for being the go-to cinematographer for big-budget projects by leading companies.
Her career started shortly after graduating from the Academy of Art in San Francisco, when Zavarcikova released an independent short film, “Esther,” which earned two nominations for Best Cinematography and six awards for Best Picture at international festivals. The notoriety of the project catapulted her to becoming the Director of Photography for Salesforce’s feature-length documentary, “Story of Sales.” Salesforce, a multi-billion-dollar company, wanted to tell the story behind its salespeople, making their stories both digestible and emotionally compelling. Despite this being her first large budget project for an industry leader, Zavarcikova intuitively understood the right look and feel for the project. A national screening tour followed, as well as more requests for Zavarcikova’s work.
Forever a student of her craft, Zavarcikova began an MFA in Cinematography at the AFI Conservatory in Los Angeles in 2018. Her thesis film “Apart, Together,” won numerous awards, including Best Live Action Short at the 2021 GSA BAFTA Student Awards, Best Narrative Short at 44th AAIFF, Women in Film award at HollyShorts, a DGA award, and the film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Following the success of “Apart, Together,” Zavarcikova created her first narrative feature “Only The Good Survive” with Sidney Flanigan (“Never Rarely Sometimes Always”) and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (“Reservation Dogs”) in leading roles.
Since then, her client roster has grown to include top-tier brands such as Maison Kitsune, Viacom and—the iconic Amazon Music and Sesame Street. Her work spans narrative, commercial, music videos, children’s programs and more. Between major brand assignments, she creates narrative and short film projects, and also contributes her time to international cinematography institutes. In 2022, she represented Slovakia at the International Cinematography Summit hosted by the ASC as a delegate of the Association of Slovak Cinematographers.
As a Slovakian-born creative, Zavarcikova is keenly aware of the importance of expressing artistic “truth.” Her home country’s historically complicated relationship with political oppression and censorship informed her drive to weave conflicting emotions into potent visual storytelling and expertly infuse subtext into her shots. She enjoys returning frequently to Slovakia to work and visit and also works frequently in San Francisco, her first home in the US. Currently at home in sunny Los Angeles, Zavarcikova enjoys hiking in Griffith Park and strolling among the coffee shops of Silverlake and Los Feliz—when she’s lucky enough to have a day off.
Lucia Zavarcikova is represented by Alexa Lopez of APA Agency.
