Nuytten is primarily a director of photography who began his career in late 1960’s. For his cinematographic work he received the French César for the film Barocco (1976), directed by  André Téchiné and La meilleure façon de marcher (1976) directed by Claude Mille and again in 1984 for the film Tchao pantin (1983) directed by Claude Berri. He worked on films such as India Song (1975) and Les enfants (1985) by the director Marguerite Duras, Brubaker (1980) by Stuart Rosenberg, Possession (1981) by Andrzei Żuławski and La vie est un roman (1983) by Alain Resnais. In 1988, he received the BAFTA award for best photography in the film Jean de Florette (1986) directed by Claude Berri. In late 1980’s he started directing and with his wife at the time, Isabelle Adjani, who was the producer and leading actress, he made his successful directing debut with the biographical drama Camille Claudel (1988). The film won the César as best film and it was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Foreign Film. Adjani was nominated for an Oscar as best leading actress and won the Silver Bear in Berlin as well as the French Césara His next two films Albert souffre (1992) and Passionnément (2000) were unnoticed. Besides working on film he teaches at the French film school La Fémis.