David Chambille is a French cinematographer. He is known for his collaborations with Bruno Dumont, Stéphane Demoustier, Louis-Julien Petit and Gaël Morel. For his work on Richard Linklater's film Nouvelle Vague (2025), he won the César Award for Best Cinematography.
Early life Chambille studied at the École nationale supérieure Louis-Lumière and graduated in 2005.
Career Chambille has served as the director of photography on more than twenty feature films and also on short films and television series. He is a frequent collaborator of the directors Bruno Dumont, Stéphane Demoustier, Louis-Julien Petit and Gaël Morel. He has also served served as a camera operator on several films and series.
In 2019, he worked on Vers la bataille, directed by Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux, which won the Louis Delluc Prize for Best First Film in 2021.
Chambille was selected by Richard Linklater to shoot his next film Nouvelle Vague after the two bonded over their shared passion and knowledge for the French New Wave movement, with Linklater saying, "We just were finishing each other's sentences with our ideas." Linklater had asked Chambille how well he knew the era and Chambille has said, "I personally love that era and know a great deal about its context – the lives of those directors, the economic and technical constraints and the style and aesthetics of the time". According to Chambille, Linklater's primary concern was to produce a film that "could have been shot during that period" and so they opted for "the kind of stock and lenses they had at the time and the texture of that moment". A black-and-white comedy-drama in the Academy ratio, Chambille shot the majority of Nouvelle Vague using digital camera technology. However, he also shot on film using Ilford HP5, Kodak 5222 stock and the ARRI 2C camera, though this was mostly during the test period, and during the shoot it was used as a reference for color grading rather than being used as actual footage. The film follows the production of Jean-Luc Godard's feature debut Breathless (1960). For his work on Nouvelle Vague, Chambille received the César Award for Best Cinematography on the occasion of the 51st César Awards. He also received a nomination for Lumière Award for Best Cinematography at the 31st Lumière Awards.
Filmography Feature film Year Title Director 2008 Arezki, l'insoumis Djamel Bendeddouche 2012 The Girl from Nowhere Jean-Claude Brisseau 2014 Discount Louis-Julien Petit My Friend Victoria Jean-Paul Civeyrac 2016 Fool Moon Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet 2016 Carole Matthieu Louis-Julien Petit 2017 Until the Birds Return Karim Moussaoui Comment j'ai rencontré mon père Maxime Motte Catch the Wind Gaël Morel 2018 Invisibles Louis-Julien Petit Bonhomme Marion Vernoux 2019 Joan of Arc Bruno Dumont Vers la bataille Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux 2021 France Bruno Dumont 2022 Kitchen Brigade Louis-Julien Petit 2023 Borgo Stéphane Demoustier 2024 The Empire Bruno Dumont To Live, to Die, to Live Again Gaël Morel 2025 The Great Arch Stéphane Demoustier Nouvelle Vague Richard Linklater 2026 Le Triangle d'or Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz La Chaleur Stéphane Demoustier
Television TV movies Year Title Director 2007 La France Made in USA Bob Swaim 2018 Le Temps des égarés Virginie Sauveur
TV series Year Title Director Notes 2007 Infrarouge Bob Swaim Episode: "Lumières noires" 2019–2020 Laetitia Jean-Xavier de Lestrade 6 episodes 2021–2022 L'Opéra Stéphane Demoustier, Cécile Ducrocq, Laïla Marrakchi, Inti Calfat, Dirk Verheye 16 episodes 2025 Cimetière indien Stéphane Demoustier 4 episodes
Awards and nominations Award Date of ceremony Category Film Result César Awards 26 February 2026 Best Cinematography Nouvelle Vague Lumière Awards 18 January 2026 Best Cinematography Manaki Brothers Film Festival 26 September 2025 Golden Camera 300
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