About Me

Award winning cinematographer John Radel ACS, has received both local and international acclaim winning over 25 film industry awards for his visually stunning photography.

He won six awards in one night for his work at the 2003 Australian Cinematographers Society awards, totalling fifteen ACS awards. He has also taken out the Australia wide Kodak 2003 and 2004 Cinematography competition for a record two years running, the 2004 critic's circle award for Best Cinematography, the top cinematography award at the Temecula Valley International Film Festival in California USA and has been nominated for the emerging talent award by the Film Critics Circle Of Australia. John's films have been selected to screen at various international film festivals including the Cannes International film festival in France, Camerimage in Poland, Shanghai Film Festival, The Sundance Film Festival and at the 2008 West Hollywood International Film Festival where he received the Best Cinematography award for his work on the Asian love story DANCE OF THE DRAGON. At the 2009 Feel Good International Film Festival John also received both the Best Film and Best Cinematography award.

John Originally studied directing and cinematography at the Queensland College of the Arts, for three years. During this time he collected his first Gold ACS award.. He would then freelance, shooting music clips for Sony Music, plus numerous commercials and dramas, winning various awards for his work, He continued to work on several feature films in the camera department including the motion picture QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, until he was one of only four to be accepted into the national film school in Sydney; The Australian Film Television and Radio School, where he specialised in cinematography. While at the school John was the cinematographer on 20 productions. His love for the European and Asian cinema led him to travel to Budapest to learn from master cinematographers Vilmos Zsigmond ASC HSC (The Deer Hunter/Close Encounters Of The Third Kind) and Laszlo Kovacs ASC HSC (Easy Rider). And to later move to Asia to work for over 4 years in Singapore, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong on various commercials, Features and Documentaries.

John travels between Asia, the USA and Australia working on various international projects, including the US Feature Film THE PHILOSOPHERS produced by George Zakk (XXX, A Man Apart, The Chronicles of Riddick), Directed by John Huddles and starring James D’Arcy (Master and Commander), Bonnie Wright (Harry Potter), the feature length docu/drama UNFOLDING FLORENCE for acclaimed director Gillian Armstrong which premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and the Southern Star television drama series THE SURGEON. He has also travelled to New York to shoot IN OUR NAME the controversial feature Length Docu/Drama for Director Chris Tuckfield which received a gold award at the 2009 acs awards and has completed shooting and co-producing the major motion picture DANCE OF THE DRAGON starring Hollywood's Jason Scott Lee, Korean superstar Jang Hyuk and Singapore's own Fann Wong. DANCE OF THE DRAGON took no less then ten awards at the 2008 West Hollywood International Film Festival; including Best Cinematography, Best Direction and Best Film. The World Wide Movie Awards also presented DANCE OF THE DRAGON with Best Asian Film for 2008, and it was voted Feel Good film of the year at the Hollywood based Feel Good Festival.

John is currently shooting the action / thriller "Dead Mine" for HBO starring Japanese actress Miki Mizuno.