Ilya Marcus is a Russian-born Israeli cinematographer and filmmaker. He lives and works in Tel-Aviv, although projects occasionally move him around Europe and the United States.
Born in Moscow in 1986, he fled to Israel with his family in 1990.
He enrolled in “Minshar School of Arts” college in 2012 with a BA in Film Studies, where he met many of the directors, editors and producers he would later collaborate with.
He worked for years as a VFX and colorist for Broadcast Media, the largest cinema post-production facility in the Middle East. The experience allowed him to have an extremely clear understanding of the cinematic process not only from a directorial and photographic perspective, but also from a technical, digitally-savvy one, which has become an indispensable tool and a clear advantage in understanding the changing requirements of the filmmaking industry today.
During his second year at Minshar college he debuted on the national scene shooting the short “Albina 12” with classmate Miki Polonski, which was nominated for the Israeli Academy Awards in 2013. The following year he shot with Polonski “Ten Buildings Away”, which was selected by the Cinéfondation of Cannes in 2015, the Chicago International Film Festival, the Jerusalem Film Festival and dozens of other festivals.
In 2015 he also shot “The Hollow Men” in collaboration with the Goethe Institut, a project aimed at bringing together Israeli and German filmmakers, based on a poem by Bronfam-Prize winner Etgar Keret, with which he collaborated side to side while creating the film.
In 2016 he directed “Live at the Dead Sea”, a 52-minutes music film inspired by the dramatic scenery of the Dead Sea, which premiered at the Kino Central in Berlin in collaboration with Berlin Sessions.
In the same year he also shot “A Night With No Dawn” directed by Sara Bozakov, which won “Best Film” at Tel Aviv International Student Film Festival, as well as “Babies” directed by Yuval Shapira, which received the The Filmnation award for best narrative movie at Emerson College Film Festival as well as Best Director at the Trinity International Film Festival.
He was invited to take part in a workshop by Bela Tarr’s director of photography Fred Keleman, at the end of which he shot “Livorno 32”, a short that premiered at the VIS Austrian Film Festival in 2017.
His latest short “Shmama”, directed by Polonski, premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2017, and won the Pardino d’argento SRG SSR for the International Competition.
In 2018, he directed and post-produced a documentary for the Technion Institute of Technology, having the opportunity to film three Nobel Laureates and many international scientists. He also shot 'Birthright' directed by Inbar Khoresh, which is scheduled for release in 2019.