1929Winner
Best Performance
Man with a Movie Camera
Mikhail Kaufman
Actor · Director · Writer
Bialystok, Grodno Province, Russian Empire (now Poland)
September 5, 1897
Biography
Mikhail Kaufman was a Soviet cinematographer and photographer. In the 1920s, after Mikhail Kaufman returned from the Russian Civil War, his brother director Dziga Vertov offered him the opportunity to participate in his newsreel series Kino-Pravda as a cameraman. Kaufman directed photography for several films, including Vertov's Man with the Movie Camera. The film is built around meta-reference and is full of innovative visual effects: in it, Kaufman acts as a cameraman and is seen shooting the film while walking on high bridges, hanging off the side of a train, climbing a smokestack and crawling underground with miners – all in order to get the best shot. Mikhail Kaufman directed three films: Moscow (1927), In Spring (1929), and An Unprecedented Campaign (1931).
Photo
Representative Works
Awards and Honors
Critical Favorites
1929Nominee
Best Director
In Spring
1924Nominee
Best Director
Kino Eye
Career Highlights
1922Highlight
Best Director
Kino-Pravda No. 6
1928Highlight
Best Director
The Eleventh Year
Video
Man with a Movie Camera
In Spring
The Eleventh Year