Fedor Lyass

With 18 films and several prestigious awards under his belt over the past decade, Fedor Lyass has rapidly ascended the ranks of Russia's top cinematographers, and recently entered the arena of English Language and Hollywood films in dramatic fashion. Born in Moscow in 1979, Fedor entered the All-Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) at the age of 16 under the tutelage of cinematographers Leonid Kalashnikov, Aleksandr Rybin and Victor Dobronitsky, leaders of the Grand Style of Soviet Cinematography. After graduating as a Director of Photography at the age of 22 and completing the Feature Film Lighting course by James Plannette (a frequent collaborator of Steven Soderbergh) in the states, Fedor shot his first feature film as a cinematographer in 2006, having since worked with many of the top Russian mainstream and independent directors and gaining widespread recognition for his work. In 2012, Fedor shot Dukhless, the highest grossing Russian film of the year, nominated for Best Cinematography at the Golden Eagle Awards. He also shot the film I'll Be Around, winner of the Grand Prize at 2012 Kinotavr Film Festival in Sochi. His credits include the TV series Ottepel, winner of the Film & TV Producers Association Award for Best Cinematography and the TEFI Award for Best TV Series of 2013. He won Best Cinematography at the Golden Horn Awards 2011 for the controversial series Shkola. Fedor served as DP on the renowned documentary Mediastan, written by Julian Assange. After completing Johnny O'Reilly's Russian-Irish co-production Moscow Never Sleeps, Fedor shot Hardcore Henry, directed by Ilya Naishuller, produced by Timur Bekmambetov, and winner of the 2015 TIFF Midnight Madness People's Choice Award. The film was released wide by STX in April of 2016. Lyass since has relocated to Los Angeles full time and already completed two upcoming features: arthouse romance Middleground, and sci-fi thriller AntiSocial.App