Background:

Michael Tebinka is a Swedish cinematographer with Polish roots, working across fiction, documentary, commercials and art projects. His background in photojournalism and video art informs a visual approach that is attentive to human detail while remaining open to experimentation. Across different formats he looks for images that draw audiences into the story and deepen its emotional impact.

He enjoys developing a film’s visual language through close collaboration, using an iterative process to test ideas and refine the approach as the project takes shape. Drawing inspiration from literature and music, he combines expressive movement and deep shadows with carefully shaped naturalistic light to create images that feel tactile, intimate, and alive.

His narrative cinematography credits include Tomorrow Island, a Cold War drama that received 18 awards and 11 nominations, including recognition for its cinematography at the Kinofilm Manchester International Short Film Festival and the Queen Palm International Film Festival. His other work includes Like Father Like Son, The Dream Machine and Blackout. Beyond narrative film, he has worked on projects for National Geographic and Onassis Culture, as well as campaigns and productions for international organisations including Sandvik, Billerud, and ASEAN Para Games.

Michael’s academic work has been shaped by a lasting interest in how people perceive and experience the world. At Lasalle College of the Arts in Singapore, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in video art, he explored this through immersive installations, creating large-scale audiovisual environments for audiences to experience. He later completed a master’s degree in 3D Stereoscopic Media at Ravensbourne University in London, studying how stereoscopy in production and post-production can influence the way viewers perceive images and space.

Michael’s experience across independent films, documentaries, commercials, music videos, and art projects gives him a flexible perspective on production: attentive to a project’s creative ambition while grounded in the practical collaboration needed to bring it to screen.