Michael Downey is a cinematographer, producer and director who works on

short and feature documentaries as well as docuseries. His clients include

the BBC, Channel 4, Disney+, National Geographic, The New York Times,

PBS, VICE, A&E, various production companies and studios.

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. He is currently

working with Academy Award nominated filmmakers Karim Amer and Mike

Learner as DP on their upcoming feature documentary on Ukraine.

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 2018, Downey worked on his first series with Chef Nigel Slater OBE as DP

for BBC2. 

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. 

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 was selected by Sundance

in 2022.

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.