Pulitzer Prize-winning conflict photographer Lynsey Addario has shot some of the most extraordinary images of war in the last 20+ years – in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere – at great personal risk. She has been kidnapped twice – in Libya in 2011 and near the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004. She was injured in a Russian mortar attack in Irpin, Ukraine that killed a mom and her two children who were trying to feel across a bridge along a civilian evacuation route.
Addario has remained dedicated to her work while raising two young boys in London with her husband, former Reuters journalist Paul de Bendern. Her remarkable career and personal life are explored in the documentary Love +War, directed by Oscar winners Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin. The National Geographic film just held its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival and made its U.S. premiere Friday at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine.
Conflict photographer Lynsey Addario in ‘Love+War’
National Geographic
“I’ve been a longtime fan of Lynsey’s work. It’s singular,” Vasarhelyi said as she stopped by Deadline’s Toronto Studio along with Addario. “It’s shaped how we see conflict, how we see war, and especially with a very compassionate eye towards women and children who are very much affected by these conflicts. And then there’s the woman who is extraordinary and how she does it.”
“It was very strange to have the camera on me for the first time,” Addario admitted. “I felt like I needed to really be transparent about my life and who I am because I wanted it to be true and honest. And I did not want the film to be a pretty picture because this life is not easy… I think it’s important to show that struggle of motherhood and being a war correspondent and the constant struggle for some sort of balance.”
Lynsey Addario with her husband, journalist Paul de Bendern.
National Geographic
Male war photographers with kids don’t often get asked how they can possibly imperil their lives given that they have children. No so with women conflict photographers like Addario.
“People always say to me, how can I risk my life? How can you risk your life as a mother? How can you leave your kids alone? Well, they’re not alone. They have a father,” Addario commented. “And for some reason people assume if a mother risks her life, it’s worse than if a father risks his life… I think it’s a constant double standard.”
(L-R) National Geographic’s Carolyn Bernstein, Lynsey Addario and Chai Vasarhelyi attend the premiere of ‘Love+War’ at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2025.
Brian de Rivera Simon/Getty Images
Love+War will open in theaters on October 29 – qualifying it for Oscar consideration. It debuts on Disney+ on November 4. The film is executive produced by National Geographic’s Carolyn Bernstein and Tim Horsburgh and produced by Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill, and Anna Barnes. Co-producers are Emma D. Miller and Matteo Brunetta.
The film arrives at a time of erosion of confidence in news media, some of it juiced by self-interested politicians who don’t want the impact of their policies exposed.
“Especially as journalism is under attack in every way possible, the idea that authentic, true images can come out and that will shape public opinion and that we have a compassionate heart behind it who’s also honed her craft as an excellent photographer — the eye is great, but there’s also an intention behind the photographs that I think is really moving,” Vasarhelyi observed. “I think that when you get to know Lynsey as a person and you understand what she’s juggling personally at home and work or in the sexism that’s prevalent in all of our fields, there’s a real authenticity that emerges. It’s organic, it’s legit. And I think the film exudes it.”
Watch the full conversation in the video above.
The Deadline Studio at TIFF is hosted at Bisha Hotel and sponsored by Cast & Crew and Final Draft.