Director of Photography,
Editor & Director.

Lucien Newell is a filmmaker based in Paris, originally from San Francisco. He started making images in 2009, drawn to stories that feel cinematic but stay grounded — raw, intimate, and sometimes introspective. His influences include Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Luc Godard, Wes Anderson, Roger Deakins, and Richard Linklater.

His work moves between documentaries, narrative fiction, music videos, commercial and event films. He gravitates toward natural light and real environments, often pairing 16mm and vintage cinema glass with modern digital tools.

His documentary Kismet (2024) — Director, DP, and Editor — won Best Documentary at the Edinburgh Independent Film Festival and the Paris Lift Off Global Network, and was a Semi-Finalist at the San Francisco Arthouse Short Festival. Forge (2014), on which he worked as 1st AC, won Best Documentary at the Humboldt International Film Festival, Best Documentary Short at the Rome International Film Festival USA, and the Rosebud Award at the CSU Media Arts Festival.

He holds a BA in Film from Humboldt State University. Clients have included EA Games, Salesforce, GetYourGuide, Wells Fargo, Waldorf Academy, Chapellet Wines, and Bay Pay Forum. He also runs LA KOLEKTIVA, a photographers' collective and print platform — all proceeds donated to charity.