His work has been shown at festivals such as Cannes, Tribeca and Palm Springs, as well as on international television channels. He has won awards for best cinematography at the Palm Springs International Festival and the European Cinematography Awards.

His recent work includes feature films, television films, series episodes and pilots. His advertising DoP work includes clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Kia, Seat, Nike, Adidas, Universal Music and Riot Games.

Leigh’s work shines for its versatility and emotionality: he has mastered a variety of expressive styles and shooting approaches, balancing artistic visual storytelling with production constraints, while always striving for an intangible emotional connection to the subjects of his work.

A graduate of UCLA’s prestigious Master’s Program in Cinematography, a program that accepts only three students per year, he studied under experienced cinematographers such as Vilmos Zsigmond ASC, John Simmons ASC, John Bailey ASC and Richard Crudo ASC. Since then he has regularly taught cinematography himself, including at UCLA, in courses on lighting, image composition and camera operation.

Leigh grew up in a New York City suburb in New Jersey and travelled frequently to São Paulo, Brazil. He holds dual citizenship of the US and Brazil and a work visa in Germany. His travels have driven his passion for telling social, human stories through a cinematic eye.

Yaël Brunnert (b. 1986), raised bilingually (English mother and German father), graduated from the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (screenplay/series, lateral entry) at the end of July 2020 with the series „Alles auf Anfang“ (family drama, crime thriller) and has found a dedicated agent in Steffen Weihe. She was recently a finalist at the Sherman Oaks and Beyond The Curve International Film Festivals with her Romantic Comedy screenplay „When Jenna Almost Never Met The Real Liam“. She is currently developing a play and an audio book in addition to film projects. In August/September 2018, she attended the Hollywood Workshop in L.A., for which she received a scholarship. In her third year at the Film Academy, Yaël worked with a fellow student (production) to develop their diploma series „Bauch Beine Flo“ (based on an idea from her). The pilot was realised. Before that, Yaël graduated from the ifs in Cologne with the English series „Saving Sara“. She also studied at Bath Spa University (MA Scriptwriting) and at the University of Bristol (MA Performance Research), where she wrote a play as her final thesis.

During her Erasmus term at the University of Hull, Yaël performed one of her plays.

Since then she has written numerous plays and scripts. Yaël also gained a lot of experience as a guest director at various theatres in Germany (Theater Osnabrück, Schauspiel Bonn, Berliner Ensemble, Thalia Theater Hamburg and Schauspielhaus Hamburg). She has worked with renowned directors such as Frank Castorf, Luc Bondy and Antú Romero Nunes. Yaël also did a three-month internship at ProSiebenSat.1 in Berlin. There she was able to get a taste of the different areas of television (production and post-production).

Patrick von Barkenberg sammelt nach dem Abitur zahlreiche Erfahrungen beim Dreh von Kurzfilmen und Musikvideos. Mit 24 erhält er ein Regie-Stipendium am American Film Institute (AFI), nachdem Frank Pierson (Dog Day Afternoon) seinen apokalyptischen Kurzfilm “One Divine Comedy” entdeckt. Patricks Abschlussfilm “[Sun]dust” läuft auf unzähligen Filmfestspielen und wird mit dem “AFI Richard P. Rogers Preis” für beste Regie ausgezeichnet. Zudem erhält er den “Technicolor Grant”, “Fuji Grant” und den “Telly Award.”.
2018 dreht Patrick seinen ersten abendfüllenden Spielfilm “BLOOD PARADISE”. Der Film feiert auf der “Film Society of Lincoln Center” in New York Premiere und erhält umgehend einen US-, Canada- & Internationalen Distributionsvertrag für Juli 2019. (Distr.: Gravitas Ventures & Artsploitation). Bei dem “Molins Film Festival” wird er für “Beste Regie, “Bester Film” und “Bestes Drehbuch” nominiert und landet nach der Vorstellung bei “Cinequest” auf der “Top Ten Indie Horror 2019” – Liste.

2019 zieht Patrick von Los Angeles nach Berlin und entwickelt dort Projekte auf Deutsch und Englisch mit internationalem Appeal. Seine Mini-Serie Schwarze SCHWARZE SONNE ist momentan bei Polyphon in Entwicklung. Er hat eine besondere Leidenschaft für Genre-Stoffe.

After working as a television editor in Munich and Cologne, from 2001-2007 executive director of the F.W.-Murnau Foundation in Wiesbaden.
Author of film and contemporary history radio and TV programmes as well as biographies on Peter Lorre, Die Ufa-Stars im Dritten Reich, Karlheinz Böhm and Sybille Schmitz, among others.
Curator of film festivals and series (including UFA Film Nights Berlin and Brussels, Berlin Babylon, Münster Theatre, TV section Filmfest Hamburg).
Lives in Berlin.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)