mauro herce, aec

Known for his evocative style, Spanish DP Mauro Herce, AEC has cultivated an impressive and internationally acclaimed body of work across feature films and documentaries. Most recently, Herce was recognized at the Goya, European Film, and Gaudí Awards, and just won the prestigious Platino Award for his work on Oliver Laxe’s Sirat, a thrilling road film that follows ravers across the Moroccan desert. The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival and was subsequently nominated for Best International Film at the Academy Awards.

Herce’s longstanding relationship with director Laxe began with Mimosas, in which Herce masterfully captures the harrowing and breathtaking expanse of the High Atlas Mountains. The film premiered at Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics Week Grand Prize. Following this, Herce shot Laxe’s Fire Will Come, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes and garnered multiple wins from the Goya, Gaudí, and Mestre Mateo Awards for Herce’s work. 

Herce also lensed Lois Patiño’s astonishing docudrama Samsara, described by The Guardian as “unlike anything else you will experience in the cinema”. The film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for the Encounters Award alongside an International Cinephile Society Award for Best Cinematography. BFI praised the film as a “transformative sensorial journey”, spotlighting Herce’s work as “otherworldly”, “luminous”, and “dreamlike”.

Herce also works closely with director Ishtar Yasin Gutierrez, having lensed El Camino, a piercing docudrama that premiered at Berlin Film Festival, and Dos Fridas, a poetic and introspective look at the last days of iconic painter Frida Kahlo, which earned Herce an award for Best Cinematography from Gibara International Film Festival. Other globally recognized work includes Lisandro Alonso’s fantasy western Eureka, Carla Subirana’s coming-of-age romance Sica, Santiago Fillol’s political thriller Slaughterhouse, and Eloy Enciso’s historical drama Endless Night. Across these various genres, Herce’s deliberate cinematography creates harmony across characters and settings that result in undeniable spectacle.

Originally from Barcelona, Herce studied film in Cuba and France. He is fluent in English, French, and Spanish and is currently based between Spain and France but works globally.

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