About Theo Solnik — Cinematographer & Director, Haikai Media
I am a cinematographer, photographer, and director based in Rome, Italy. I directed my first film at seventeen and have been working continuously for over 29 years, trained at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb), shooting cinema, documentary, and corporate work across four continents.
My first feature, Anna Pavlova Lives in Berlin, won the Prize for Young Film Art from the German National Gallery and the German Film Academy—presented by Bruno Ganz and Iris Berben—and was exhibited daily over four months in a dedicated room at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart museum in Berlin. My work has since screened at festivals and museums in more than 25 countries and is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
When you book a shoot with Haikai Media, I am the person who shows up.
Education & formation
I was born in São Paulo in 1981 and began working as a freelance press photographer at fifteen. At seventeen I moved to Norway, where I directed my first short film and studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Oslo. I relocated to Berlin in my early twenties to train in film directing and cinematography at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (dffb), one of Europe’s most selective film schools, where I studied from 2006 to 2013.
Before completing my studies at the dffb, I made my performing debut as an actor and pianist in Cacilda! at Teatro Oficina in São Paulo—a production written and directed by José Celso Martinez Corrêa, one of Brazil’s most influential theatre directors. I later performed as pianist and actor in productions at the Maxim-Gorki-Theater and BAT Theater in Berlin.
Film career & awards
My first feature as director and cinematographer, Anna Pavlova Lives in Berlin (2011), became the most recognised work of my film career. It received the Prize for Young Film Art from the German National Gallery and the German Film Academy—presented by actors Bruno Ganz and Iris Berben—and as part of the prize the film was exhibited daily over four months in a dedicated installation room at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, Berlin’s foremost contemporary art museum. The same film received the Promotional Award of the City of Duisburg at the Duisburger Filmwoche, Best Cinematography at Festival Achtung Berlin, Best Feature at the Boddinale Film Festival, the Helene-Schwarz-Preis, and a Special Prize of the Jury at the CineramaBC International Film Festival.
Earlier work was recognised at the Up & Coming Festival Hannover, where Outrage / Rikkomus (2009) received a Special Mention of the Jury, and the same film was nominated for the German Prize for Young Directors.
Across my feature and short film career—spanning titles from Gangster Blues (1999) to The Haendel Variations (2018)—my work has screened at festivals and museums in more than 25 countries, including the Rauma Biennale Balticum in Finland and the European Media Art Festival in Osnabrück.
Broken Dreams (2017), directed by Pras Lingam and in which I worked as the director of photography, is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video with an IMDb rating of 8.5/10.
My full filmography is listed on IMDb and MUBI.
Commercial & corporate work
Alongside my film career, I have worked as cinematographer and photographer for a range of corporate and institutional clients across Europe, North America, and Latin America.
My technology clients include Google, Amazon Web Services, Huawei, Brain Corp, Cresta, and Pixellot. In pharma and life sciences I have shot for Pfizer, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Gilead, and Asahi-Kasei. In finance and consulting: Barclays and Boston Consulting Group. In industrial: SABIC, MAN Truck & Bus Portugal, and CAF Italia.
Recent projects include a commercial for Brain Corp and Tennant shot in San Diego (2024), event coverage for the World Aviation Festival in Lisbon (2023), and a documentary for Autism Spectrum Reach shot in San Francisco (2023). I have also served as director of photography on EU-funded productions, including the OpenInnoTrain final event in Porto (2024).
Diplomatic & institutional work
A distinct strand of my work involves access-sensitive assignments for diplomatic and governmental clients, handled through Protocol Portraits.
In 2017 I served as official photographer for the State Visit of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima of the Netherlands to Portugal, commissioned by the Dutch Royal Household. In March 2022 I documented the visit of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg, to Lisbon for the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce. Also in 2022, I served as director of photography on Swedish National Television’s (SVT) documentary portrait of Giorgio Parisi, the Italian physicist who received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2021. I have also covered official trade missions for U.S. state governments, including a trade delegation from the State of New Jersey to Mexico City led by Governor Phil Murphy in 2025.
How I work
Haikai Media operates as a single-operator studio. I am the cinematographer, photographer, director, editor, colorist, and sound designer on every project—not a booking agency that assigns jobs to an unknown roster of freelancers.
A typical shoot begins with a written brief and a call to align on objectives, locations, and deliverables. Before the shoot day, I submit test frames or lighting references for approval. On set I operate camera, manage lighting, and direct on-camera subjects. First cuts are available for review within 24 to 48 hours of the shoot. Delivery follows in staged cuts—rough assembly, fine cut, final export—with a fixed number of revision rounds agreed in advance. Post-production is handled entirely in-house: picture editing, advanced color grading with full knowledge of color spaces, gamma curves, and codec pipelines, original music composition, and sound mixing.
This end-to-end capability means clients deal with one person from brief to final delivery—no handoffs, no version control problems, no vendor coordination.
Full workflow details on How It Works
Credentials & external verification
I hold Italian and Brazilian nationality and am based in Rome, Italy. I speak seven languages: Portuguese, English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, and Norwegian—a practical asset on international shoots where briefing local crews, directing on-camera talent, and communicating with clients happen in the same day across different languages.
I hold a U.S. O-1B visa, the designation issued by the U.S. government to artists and entertainers of extraordinary ability—a classification that requires documented evidence of sustained international recognition.
My work is documented across the following external profiles:
Contact & next step
To discuss a shoot, use the contact form on this page. I respond within one business day.