Zac James Nicholson is an American filmmaker from New York City working across narrative, documentary, and music-focused film. His work as a director and cinematographer is known for its cinematic style and nuanced, character-driven perspective.

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Among his recent projects, Zac shot Four Rational People, a feature documentary chronicling the final world tour of the nine-time Grammy Award–winning Emerson String Quartet as they prepare to disband after 47 years together. He was also the director of photography on the narrative feature On A String, directed by and starring comedian Isabel Hagen and co-starring Hagen, Eric Bogosian, Dylan Baker, and Jamie Lee, which had its premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival.

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For the past year, Zac has been embedded at Memorial Sloan Kettering as the cinematographer on In the Prime of Life (w/t), a feature documentary for CNN Films directed by Emmy, Peabody, and two-time WGA Award nominee Janet Tobias. The film follows cancer patients and the doctors, scientists, nurses, and social workers who care for them, tracing the dramatic global rise of early onset cancers in adults under 50. The film is set to premiere in 2027.