Biography

Michael Downey is a cinematographer, producer and director from Alaska based between the U.S. & Istanbul. Downey's work ranges from feature documentaries & shorts, to series for various broadcast, streaming and online outlets.

Downey's most recent conflict work covered the Russian invasion of Ukraine for The New York Times, the staff coverage of which received a Pulitzer for international news coverage of the invasion of Ukraine. In 2022 and 2023, Downey worked with Academy Award nominated filmmakers Karim Amer and Mike Learner as DP on their upcoming feature documentary on the war in Ukraine, 'Defiant' which was selected at TIFF 2023.

Downey's first work on a documentary feature was in 2015 with Academy Award winning filmmaker Eva Orner on her film 'Chasing Asylum' as a segment DP for Lebanon. The film received an AACTA Award for Best Feature Length Documentary.

In 2022, Downey received the Picture of the Year International's Documentary Award of Excellence for his short documentary on the dying bird language in northern Turkey. That year, he also worked as DP on a six-part series titled 'Lift the Ice', which was filmed across five continents for Beach House Pictures and Curiosity Studios and released in 2023.

Additionally, he was approached by Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker Rita Baghdadi to assist as an additional cinematographer on her film 'Sirens', a coming-of-age documentary that has since been picked up by Sundance.

In 2018, Downey worked on his first series with Chef Nigel Slater OBE as DP for BBC2.

His earlier work saw him cover major political events in the MENA region, such as the civil wars in Libya and Syria, the Syrian refugee crisis in Lebanon, the 2011 Arab Spring uprising in Egypt, as well as the conflict in Iraq.

- IMDb mini biography by: Michael Downey