Stephen F Windon ACS ASC was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017.
Stephen Windon was born in Sydney in 1959 into a family with a long tradition in the Australian film industry. His grandfather, Fred Windon was a gaffer at Cinesound, who began working during the silent film era. Stephen’s father is the venerable Ron Windon ACS.
From the age of eight Stephen decided that he too wanted to be a cinematographer and began his career at ABC-TV Sydney, working his way through the ranks as loader, focus puller, operator and then cinematographer. In the late 1980s, he left the ABC to work freelance and shot a number of Australian productions as well as shooting commercials for his father Ron, before returning to ABC TV as DoP on the ACS Golden Tripod winning mini- series Come in Spinner and The Leaving of Liverpool. He was then 2nd unit DoP for Russell Boyd ACS on Crocodile Dundee 2, Disney’s The Rescue in New Zealand and The Challenge, a TV mini series based on Australia’s win in the America’s Cup.
As of May, 2017 Stephen has been credited on 37 major productions. His first US film as DoP was the 1993 Kevin Costner produced Rapa Nui, subsequently followed with the Costner directed The Postman. In the years since he has been the DoP on more than 20 US films including GI Joe Retaliation, The Tuxedo, Star Trek Beyond as well as five films in the Fast and Furious franchise, including Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift, Fast Five, Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious.
In 2010 Stephen received an Emmy nomination for his work on the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks/Gary Goetzman HBO epic miniseries The Pacific. He also received the ASC Award for ‘Outstanding Cinematography for a TV Miniseries’ for the same production at the 2011 American Society of Cinematographers Awards and a Gold Tripod at the ACS 2011 National Awards. During the course of his career, Stephen has been awarded seven ACS Gold Tripod Awards for his work on Mini-Series, Documentaries & Commercials, as well as two AFI Award nominations. Stephen is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and is a proud Accredited member of the Australian Cinematographers Society and was ASC Accredited in 2015.
