Duarte Domingos is a Portuguese cinematographer based in Lisbon, working internationally across feature films, documentaries, commercials and music videos.
Born in the Algarve, in southern Portugal, Domingos grew up surrounded by the Atlantic coast, intense natural light and the landscapes of the Portuguese south — elements that would later inform his sensitivity to place, texture and natural environments.
His first creative interest was music rather than filmmaking. After discovering a growing fascination with cinema, he moved to Lisbon and enrolled at ETIC in 2008. Much of his development as a cinematographer, however, came through a largely self-directed process of watching films, studying photography and experimenting with cameras, lenses, film stocks and light.
Early in his career, Domingos founded his own small production company, working across different areas of filmmaking while gradually developing his identity behind the camera. Eventually, he chose to leave production behind and dedicate himself entirely to cinematography.
Music videos became an important creative laboratory during this period, allowing him to experiment freely with format, movement, colour and texture. This experience developed alongside an increasingly substantial career in advertising, where he began working with some of Portugal's leading directors and production companies.
Over the following decade, Domingos built a body of commercial work for brands including Vodafone, Nescafé, Toyota, Renault, McDonald's, Sumol, Aldi, Millennium BCP, Novo Banco, Continente, El Corte Inglés, IKEA, MEO, Sagres and The Walt Disney Company, among others.
His commercial collaborations have included directors such as Bruno Ferreira, Tiago Ribeiro, Filipe Penajóia, Francisco Neffe, André Caniços and Ruben do Valle, working with production companies including Casper Films, Playground, Krypton Films, BRO, Trix, Mother Lisbon, Major West and others.
Alongside advertising, music has remained central to Domingos' cinematography.
His music-video work includes collaborations with artists such as Fatoumata Diawara featuring Damon Albarn, BAEKHYUN, Slow J, Bárbara Bandeira, Pedro Mafama, Moullinex & GPU Panic, António Zambujo, Sam The Kid, Stereossauro and others.
One of the projects that brought his music cinematography wider recognition was Fatoumata Diawara's “Nsera”, featuring Damon Albarn, directed by Gregory Ohrel and filmed in Senegal. Domingos' cinematography on the film was nominated for Best Cinematography in a Music Video at the 2023 AIP Cinema Awards, presented by the Portuguese Association of Cinematographers.
This followed his first AIP recognition in 2022, when he received nominations in two different disciplines: Best Cinematography in a Music Video for “Want – Rainy Days” and Best Cinematography in Advertising for Sumol's “Laranjas do Algarve.”
In 2024, Domingos received another AIP nomination for Best Cinematography in a Music Video for Bárbara Bandeira featuring Dillaz, marking his third consecutive year nominated by the Portuguese cinematography community.
His work during this period increasingly moved between commercial filmmaking and more personal, music-driven projects. Among these collaborations has been an ongoing creative relationship with director Ruben do Valle.
For Moullinex & GPU Panic's “Towards The Sun”, Domingos travelled to Palm Springs, California, for a film built around landscape, movement and a non-professional protagonist. The project continued his interest in combining carefully controlled cinematography with the unpredictability of real locations and real people.
The film later earned Domingos a nomination for Best Cinematography in a Music Video at the 2025 AIP Cinema Awards.
His collaboration with do Valle continued with Bárbara Bandeira's “Marcha”, filmed entirely on 35mm in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio during the Romaria d'Agonia in Viana do Castelo. The film uses the religious procession, traditional costumes, horses, boats, crowds and the physical landscape of northern Portugal as part of its visual language, combining documentary observation with staged musical performance. “Marcha” was subsequently featured by Directors' Library.
Domingos has also photographed work for South Korean artist BAEKHYUN, including the music video “Elevator”, further extending his work into the international music industry.
Another significant collaboration came with director André Caniços on Pedro Mafama featuring Cheb Nassim's “Milésimo de Segundo”, photographed in Algiers. The film received Gold at the 2025 Clube da Criatividade de Portugal Festival in the Film / Music Video craft category, with Domingos credited as Director of Photography.
While commercials and music videos established his career, Domingos has increasingly expanded his work into long-form cinema.
A defining project was “Savanna and the Mountain” (“A Savana e a Montanha”), directed by Paulo Carneiro.
The Portuguese-Uruguayan feature occupies a space between documentary and fiction and follows the inhabitants of Covas do Barroso, a rural community in northern Portugal confronting plans for a large open-pit lithium mine near their homes.
Rather than working with professional actors, Carneiro built the film around members of the community themselves. For Domingos, this required a cinematographic approach capable of preserving the unpredictability and authenticity of documentary filmmaking while simultaneously constructing a strong visual language.
Landscape, natural light, faces and the physical relationship between the inhabitants and their territory became central elements of the cinematography.
“Savanna and the Mountain” premiered internationally in Directors' Fortnight at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, beginning an extensive international festival run that included Filmfest Hamburg, Pingyao International Film Festival, São Paulo International Film Festival, SEMINCI Valladolid, Athens International Film Festival, Astra Film Festival, Bergen International Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, Trento Film Festival, Beldocs and numerous other festivals across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
Domingos' cinematography on the film received a nomination for Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature at the 2025 AIP Cinema Awards.
It subsequently received the Best Cinematography award at the 2024–2025 Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards, awarded directly to Domingos for his work on “Savanna and the Mountain.”
The film itself accumulated further international recognition during its festival life, including a Special Mention for Best Portuguese Documentary at MDOC, an Ibero-American Competition Award at Lima Alterna, a Jury Honorable Mention at SEMINCI Valladolid, a Special Mention at Laceno d'Oro, the Jury Grand Prize and Audience Award at Blue Planet Future Festival in South Korea, Best Documentary Feature at Dili International Film Festival, and other distinctions.
His expansion into long-form work continued with the Netflix documentary “Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe” (“Maré Branca: A Surreal História de Rabo de Peixe”), directed by João Marques. The project explores the extraordinary real events surrounding the arrival of a large quantity of cocaine on the Azorean island of São Miguel, further developing Domingos' work at the intersection of documentary reality and cinematic image-making.
By 2025, the breadth of Domingos' work was reflected particularly clearly in the AIP Cinema Awards, where he was simultaneously nominated in three separate cinematography categories:
Best Cinematography in Advertising — “Nescafé Farmers Origins”
Best Cinematography in a Music Video — Moullinex & GPU Panic, “Towards The Sun”
Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature — “Savanna and the Mountain”
The three nominations represented the different areas in which his cinematography had developed simultaneously: advertising, music and cinema.
His position within contemporary Portuguese commercial cinematography has also been recognised by the Clube da Criatividade de Portugal (CCP).
Domingos was included in the Top 5 Director of Photography group in the 2024 National Creativity Ranking, alongside Bernardo Infante, João Marques, Leandro Ferrão and Rui Poças. The annual CCP ranking is calculated from work awarded at the Clube da Criatividade de Portugal Festival.
He returned to the CCP Top Director of Photography group in 2025, making it two consecutive years among the cinematographers recognised by the organisation's national professional ranking.
His cinematography also appears across individual CCP-winning projects. André Caniços' “Milésimo de Segundo,” photographed by Domingos, received Gold at CCP 2025, while The Walt Disney Company's “Coleção Regressos,” directed by Tiago Ribeiro and photographed by Domingos, received Silver at the 2026 CCP Festival.
Beyond awards for his own work, Domingos has increasingly participated in the international advertising and filmmaking community. In 2025 he was selected as a Cinematography Jury member for the shots Awards EMEA, joining an international panel of cinematographers and creative-industry professionals judging cinematography across European, Middle Eastern and African work.
Across these different areas, Domingos' cinematography is characterised less by a fixed visual formula than by an interest in the relationship between constructed imagery and observed reality.
His work frequently places real people within visually heightened environments, allowing documentary behaviour, landscape and available light to coexist with precise choices of framing, colour, camera movement and format.
Analogue cinematography has become an important part of that language.
Domingos regularly works with 16mm and 35mm film, alongside contemporary digital cinema cameras, and has continued to explore photochemical acquisition across music videos, commercials and narrative work. Rather than approaching film purely as a nostalgic aesthetic, he uses format as part of the emotional and physical language of each project — choosing cameras, lenses, stocks and aspect ratios according to the world of the film.
This relationship between observation and construction can be seen across projects as different as the rural landscape and non-professional cast of “Savanna and the Mountain,” the desert environment and human portraiture of “Towards The Sun,” the streets of Algiers in “Milésimo de Segundo,” and the crowds, rituals and traditions captured on 35mm for “Marcha.”
The result is a body of work that crosses boundaries traditionally separating advertising, music video and cinema.
After beginning primarily within Portugal's commercial industry, Domingos has progressively developed an international career, working across Europe, Africa and the United States and collaborating with international artists, directors and production companies.
He is represented internationally by Operandi MGMT and continues to be based in Lisbon, Portugal, working worldwide as a Director of Photography.
CCP Festival — Silver
Coleção Regressos — The Walt Disney Company
Director: Tiago Ribeiro
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Silver-winning project, CCP Festival 2026.
Rome Prisma Independent Film Awards — WINNER, Best Cinematography
Savanna and the Mountain
Director: Paulo Carneiro
Cinematography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in Advertising
Nescafé Farmers Origins
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in a Music Video
Moullinex & GPU Panic — Towards The Sun
Director: Ruben do Valle
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in a Documentary Feature
Savanna and the Mountain
Director: Paulo Carneiro
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Clube da Criatividade de Portugal — Top Director of Photography, 2025 National Creativity Ranking
CCP Festival — Gold
Pedro Mafama feat. Cheb Nassim — Milésimo de Segundo
Director: André Caniços
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Gold-winning project in Film / Music Video craft.
shots Awards EMEA 2025 — Cinematography Jury Member
Clube da Criatividade de Portugal — Top 5 Director of Photography, 2024 National Creativity Ranking
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in a Music Video
Bárbara Bandeira feat. Dillaz
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Cannes Film Festival — Directors' Fortnight Official Selection
Savanna and the Mountain
Director: Paulo Carneiro
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in a Music Video
Fatoumata Diawara feat. Damon Albarn — Nsera
Director: Gregory Ohrel
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in a Music Video
Want — Rainy Days
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
AIP Cinema Awards — Nominee, Best Cinematography in Advertising
Sumol — Laranjas do Algarve
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
2024
Directors' Fortnight — Cannes Film Festival, France
MDOC — Special Mention, Best Portuguese Documentary, Portugal
Pingyao International Film Festival, China
Filmfest Hamburg, Germany
FIDBA Buenos Aires, Argentina
Athens International Film Festival, Greece
Lima Alterna — Ibero-American Competition Award, Peru
Bergen International Film Festival, Norway
São Paulo International Film Festival, Brazil
SEMINCI Valladolid — Jury Honorable Mention, Spain
Astra Film Festival, Romania
Directors' Fortnight Los Angeles, USA
Golden Rooster Film Festival, China
Laceno d'Oro — Special Mention, Italy
Cinema Vérité, Iran
and other international selections.
2025
Trento Film Festival, Italy
Beldocs International Documentary Film Festival, Serbia
Guadalajara International Film Festival, Mexico
Blue Planet Future Festival — Jury Grand Prize & Audience Award, South Korea
Dili International Film Festival — Best Documentary Feature, Timor-Leste
Ulsan Ulju Mountain Film Festival — Best Director, South Korea
and additional international festival selections.
Turn of the Tide: The Surreal Story of Rabo de Peixe — Netflix
Director: João Marques
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Savanna and the Mountain — Feature Documentary / Fiction, 2024
Director: Paulo Carneiro
Portugal / Uruguay
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Portrait of a Place: O Jogo dos Pombos
Director: George Daniell
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Pas de Confettis
Director: Bruno Ferreira
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
O Dia em que a Música Morreu
Director: Bruno Ferreira
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
O Silêncio
Directors: Pedro Caldeira & Paulo Graça
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
Together
Directors: Marco Espírito Santo & Del Reginato
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
The Knocking
Director: José M. Norton
Director of Photography: Duarte Domingos
BAEKHYUN — Elevator
Bárbara Bandeira — Marcha
Pedro Mafama feat. Cheb Nassim — Milésimo de Segundo
Moullinex & GPU Panic — Towards The Sun
Fatoumata Diawara feat. Damon Albarn — Nsera
Bárbara Bandeira feat. Dillaz — Carro
Slow J — Cor da Pele
Bárbara Bandeira — Finda
Moullinex & GPU Panic — Running in the Dark
António Zambujo
Sam The Kid
Stereossauro
and others.
Nescafé · Vodafone · The Walt Disney Company · Toyota · Renault · McDonald's · Aldi · Sumol · Millennium BCP · Novo Banco · Continente · El Corte Inglés · IKEA · MEO · Sagres · Amália Jewels · Portugal Fashion and others.
Director of Photography
Instagram@duartecore
The Talent GroupSCANDINAVIA AND NORTH OF EUROPE
Klara Malmberg
klaara@ttg.se
+46 707 776 340
Based in Lisbon, Portugal.
Available worldwide.