Fedor Lyass - Biography

Fedor Lyass was born in Moscow in 1979. He entered the All-Russian State University of Cinematography film school (VGIK) at the age of 16. His tutors, cinematographers Leonid Kalashnikov, Aleksandr Rybin and Victor Dobronitsky were the leaders of Soviet cinematography grand style. Fedor graduated as a Director of Photography at the age of 22. In 2003 he completed a Feature Film Lighting course by James Plannette (who constantly works with Steven Soderbergh as a gaffer) in Maine Media College in the US. Fedor shot his first feature film as a cinematographer in 2006, and since then has completed 18 feature films, two TV shows and many short films, commercials and music videos. He has worked with many of the top Russian mainstream and independent directors and has won many prestigious cinematography awards. In 2012, Fedor shot Dukhless, the highest grossing Russian film of the year, which was nominated for Best Cinematography at the Golden Eagle Awards. He also shot the film, I'll Be Around, which won the Grand Prize at 2012 Kinotavr Film Festival in Sochi. Among his credits are the TV series Ottepel, which won the Film & TV Producers Association Award for Best Cinematography and a TEFI Award for Best TV Series 2013. He also shot the controversial series Shkola, which won Best Cinematography at the Golden Horn Awards 2011. Fedor was Director of Photography 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. STX is releasing the film wide on April 8th, 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.