---
name: "Ellen Kuras"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ellen-kuras"
fi1m_id: "ellen-kuras"
imdb_id: "nm0475578"
tmdb_id: 313
wikidata_id: "Q439911"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "10 July 1959"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 10
average_fi1m_score: 64
average_as: "director"
average_over: 4
updated: "2026-10-19T04:25:44.572489+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ellen Kuras

## Identity

Ellen Kuras

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ellen-kuras
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** ellen-kuras
- **IMDb ID:** nm0475578
- **TMDB ID:** 313
- **Wikidata ID:** Q439911
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Kuras, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q439911, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0475578/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/313

Director. Born 10 July 1959 in New Jersey, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 10 July 1959, New Jersey, USA
- **Active:** 1996–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 10: 4 directing, 6 crew
- **Frequently works with:** [Michel Gondry](https://film.one/person/michel-gondry.md), [Kate Winslet](https://film.one/person/kate-winslet.md), [Yasiin Bey](https://film.one/person/yasiin-bey.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 64, as director, over 4 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 70 (4), 2010s 75 (3), 2020s 66 (3)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 64 to 68 across 4 titles
- **Score spread:** 0 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 1 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 4, Crime 2, Action & Adventure 1, History 1, Mystery 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1
- **Screen time:** 2 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $24m across 1 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellen_Kuras, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q439911, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0475578/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/313

## Streaming the US now

- **Disney+:** [*Jane*](https://film.one/film/jane.md) (78), [*Legion*](https://film.one/tv/legion.md) (77), [*Lee*](https://film.one/film/lee.md) (61)
- **Netflix:** [*Ozark*](https://film.one/tv/ozark.md) (70)
- **AMC+:** [*The Ballad of Jack and Rose*](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-jack-and-rose.md) (54)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Scarpetta*](https://film.one/tv/scarpetta.md) (50)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Ellen Kuras

> Ellen Kuras brings a cinematographer’s attention to the people she films. We value that care, but her directing has yet to convince us: *Lee* is too dutiful, and the shared work of *Scarpetta* never holds together.

In *Lee* (2024), Kate Winslet makes Lee Miller’s humour survive alongside her exhaustion. Kuras gives us a woman worth spending time with, then keeps hurrying through the history around her. We warmed to Winslet’s Miller because she can be funny without seeming any less worn down. The film is too busy explaining her to let that performance do enough of the work. It leaves us interested in Kuras’s directing, but not persuaded by it.

Her cinematography, including *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* (2004), is concerned with making a character’s feelings visible. That concern connects her documentary beginnings in the late 1980s with her narrative work for Spike Lee and Michel Gondry. *The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)* (2008), which she directed and shot, brought those jobs together. Television directing followed from around 2010, before *Lee* became her first dramatic feature as director. This was a gradual move between jobs that require different kinds of judgement.

Kuras treats camera placement, blocking and lighting as ways of putting us close to a character. She also uses changes in colour and contrast to follow a story’s emotional course. These are sound instincts for a film about a photographer, and *Lee* is certainly handsome. But taking Miller through the war years leaves too little time to watch her work, or to let a scene continue beyond the information it needs to convey.

*Scarpetta* (2026) exposes a different problem: consistency across episodes. Kuras shares the directing with David Gordon Green and Charlotte Brändström, so we cannot lay every awkward change at her door. The episodes do not look or move alike, while the red herrings and an AI chatbot keep pulling attention away from the actors. Jeff Russo and Perrine Virgile’s low strings provide continuity the pictures lack. Nicole Kidman and Jamie Lee Curtis keep us watching; the direction gives them too little help.

We would still welcome another Kuras feature, preferably one less determined to cover every stage of its subject’s journey. *Lee* offers a reason to keep watching her, with Andy Samberg’s quietly effective performance beside Winslet another of its pleasures. Start there for the performances, and allow for the dutiful history around them.

## Biography

Ellen Kuras is an American cinematographer and director. Born on 10 July 1959 in New Jersey, she studied anthropology and semiotics at Brown University and photography at the Rhode Island School of Design.

She began her career in documentaries before working as director of photography on narrative features including *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* (2004), *Blow* (2001) and *Analyze That* (2002). Kuras has directed episodes of series such as *The Umbrella Academy* (2019), *Ozark* (2017), *Legion* (2017) and *The Terminal List* (2022). Her feature directorial debut was the biographical drama *Lee* (2023), and she directed an episode of the series *Scarpetta* (2026).

Kuras directed and shot the documentary *The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)* (2008), which received an Academy Award nomination. She is a member of the American Society of Cinematographers.

*Sources: imdb.com, en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com.*

## On Fi1m (10)

### Directed (4) — the average rests on these

- *Scarpetta* (2026), Fi1m 50, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/scarpetta.md)
- *Lee* (2024), Fi1m 61, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/lee.md)
- *Legion* (2017), Fi1m 77, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/legion.md)
- *Ozark* (2017), Fi1m 70, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/ozark.md)

### Crew (6)

- *Killers of the Flower Moon* (2023), Fi1m 86, Second Unit Director — [page](https://film.one/film/killers-of-the-flower-moon.md)
- *Jane* (2017), Fi1m 78, Cinematography, Director of Photography — [page](https://film.one/film/jane.md)
- *Be Kind Rewind* (2008), Fi1m 65, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/be-kind-rewind.md)
- *Dave Chappelle's Block Party* (2005), Fi1m 75, Cinematography, Director of Photography — [page](https://film.one/film/dave-chappelles-block-party.md)
- *The Ballad of Jack and Rose* (2005), Fi1m 54, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-jack-and-rose.md)
- *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* (2004), Fi1m 88, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/film/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind.md)

## Complete filmography (65)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Aldeas, the Final Dream of Pope Francis* (2026), Director of Photography
- *Scarpetta* (2026), series, Director — Fi1m 50, [page](https://film.one/tv/scarpetta.md)
- *Beatles '64* (2024), Director of Photography
- *Lee* (2024), Director — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/lee.md)
- *Killers of the Flower Moon* (2023), Second Unit Director — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/killers-of-the-flower-moon.md)
- *Extrapolations* (2023), series, Director
- *Personality Crisis: One Night Only* (2022), Director of Photography
- *The Terminal List* (2022), series, Director
- *Inventing Anna* (2022), series, Director
- *Bob Dylan: Odds and Ends* (2021), Director of Photography
- *Pretend It's a City* (2021), series, Director of Photography
- *Making 'The Irishman'* (2020), Director of Photography
- *David Byrne's American Utopia* (2020), Director of Photography
- *Brave New World* (2020), series, Director
- *Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese* (2019), Director of Photography
- *Catch-22* (2019), series, Producer, Director
- *The Umbrella Academy* (2019), series, Director
- *Jane* (2017), Director of Photography — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/jane.md)
- *Wormwood* (2017), series, Director of Photography
- *Bob Dylan: Trouble No More* (2017), Director of Photography
- *Wormwood* (2017), Director of Photography
- *Ozark* (2017), series, Director — Fi1m 70, [page](https://film.one/tv/ozark.md)
- *Legion* (2017), series, Director — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/tv/legion.md)
- *Monster in the Mind* (2016), Director of Photography
- *Falling Water* (2016), series, Director
- *A Little Chaos* (2015), Director of Photography
- *George Harrison: Living in the Material World* (2011), series, Director of Photography
- *Public Speaking* (2011), Director of Photography
- *Away We Go* (2009), Director of Photography
- *The Betrayal – Nerakhoon* (2008), Director, Writer, Director of Photography
- *Shine a Light* (2008), Director of Photography
- *Be Kind Rewind* (2008), Director of Photography — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/film/be-kind-rewind.md)
- *Lou Reed's Berlin* (2007), Director of Photography
- *Neil Young: Heart of Gold* (2006), Director of Photography
- *Dave Chappelle's Block Party* (2005), Director of Photography — Fi1m 75, [page](https://film.one/film/dave-chappelles-block-party.md)
- *The Ballad of Jack and Rose* (2005), Director of Photography — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ballad-of-jack-and-rose.md)
- *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* (2004), Director of Photography — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind.md)
- *Coffee and Cigarettes* (2004), Director of Photography
- *Analyze That* (2002), Director of Photography
- *The Truth About Charlie* (2002), Thanks
- *Jim Brown: All-American* (2002), Director of Photography
- *Personal Velocity* (2002), Director of Photography
- *A Huey P. Newton Story* (2001), Director of Photography
- *Blow* (2001), Director of Photography
- *Bamboozled* (2000), Director of Photography
- *Summer of Sam* (1999), Director of Photography
- *The Mod Squad* (1999), Director of Photography
- *He Got Game* (1998), Director of Photography
- *Just the Ticket* (1998), Director of Photography
- *4 Little Girls* (1997), Director of Photography
- *If These Walls Could Talk* (1996), Director of Photography
- *I Shot Andy Warhol* (1996), Director of Photography
- *The Dadshuttle* (1996), Director of Photography
- *Angela* (1996), Director of Photography
- *Unzipped* (1995), Director of Photography
- *Roy Cohn/Jack Smith* (1995), Director of Photography
- *Postcards from America* (1995), Director of Photography
- *the heart of the matter* (1994), Cinematography
- *Geoffrey Beene 30* (1993), Director of Photography
- *Swoon* (1992), Director of Photography
- *Guerrillas In Our Midst* (1992), Director of Photography
- *The World According to John Coltrane* (1990), Gaffer
- *He Was Once* (1989), Assistant Camera
- *American Stories: Food, Family and Philosophy* (1989), Assistant Director
- *Samsara: Death and Rebirth in Cambodia* (1989), Director of Photography

## Awards

### Other awards — 1 won

- Crystal Award 2024: Crystal Award (won)

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ellen-kuras