Diego Sapienza (Montevideo, 1989) is an Italo-Uruguayan cinematographer and documentary filmmaker mainly working between Europe and Latin America. Recently, also in Los Angeles.
Born in the chaos of live television and music broadcasts, Diego Sapienza developed his eye behind the lens — operating cameras for live sports for ESPN and Fox Sports LA, and capturing and directing concerts for bands like The Prodigy, The Offspring, Jungle, and others. This early work, fast, loud, and unscripted, became a training ground for precision, adaptability, and instinct under pressure.
After moving to Berlin, he spent over a decade immersed in the European film industry, working as a camera operator, gaffer, and lighting technician across fiction, documentary, and commercial productions. During this time, he contributed to large-scale projects such as Babylon Berlin, Munich: The Edge of War, (all Netflix), while supporting productions for international clients including Sony Music, Apple, ARRI Lighting, UNICEF, Adidas, and Mercedes-Benz.
Formally trained, he holds a degree in Audiovisual Communication from ORT University (Uruguay), a technical diploma in Film Cinematography from ECA (Buenos Aires), and a Master in Cinematography from ESCAC (Barcelona).
Sapienza’s visual work moves at the intersection of lyricism and realism, often drawn to quiet ruptures, unspoken tensions, and the fragile rituals of everyday life — silences that speak, gestures that fracture, and the invisible weight of ordinary moments. His images favor emotional honesty over visual noise, shaped by a practice that blends structured cinematographic rigor with a looser, observational, human-centered approach. He explores themes of identity, social dynamics, and the shifting boundaries between reality, visual form, and fiction.
Fluent in Spanish, Italian, German, and English, Sapienza is based between Barcelona, Berlin and Montevideo and is interested in developing new projects through international collaborations.