--- name: "Michael Fimognari" canonical: "https://film.one/person/michael-fimognari" roles: ["Producer","Director"] born: "26 June 1974" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_as: "producer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T13:51:51.976285+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Michael Fimognari Producer and director. Born 26 June 1974 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ## Details - **Work:** Producer, Director - **Born:** 26 June 1974, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania - **Active:** 2018–present - **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 1 directing, 1 producing, 1 crew - **Frequently works with:** [Mike Flanagan](https://film.one/person/mike-flanagan.md), [Kate Siegel](https://film.one/person/kate-siegel.md), [Dani Parker](https://film.one/person/dani-parker.md), [Jamie Flanagan](https://film.one/person/jamie-flanagan.md), [Jeff Howard](https://film.one/person/jeff-howard-1224355.md), [Kathy Gilroy](https://film.one/person/kathy-gilroy.md), [Samantha Sloyan](https://film.one/person/samantha-sloyan.md) - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 80 (1), 2020s 68 (2) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Fimognari, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q33507138, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0277342/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/63099 ## Coming up - *Carrie* (2026-10-07), Director of Photography — [page](https://film.one/tv/carrie-2026.md) - *The Exorcist: Martyrs* (2027-03-10), Director of Photography ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*The Haunting of Hill House*](https://film.one/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house.md) (80), [*Midnight Mass*](https://film.one/tv/midnight-mass.md) (72), [*The Fall of the House of Usher*](https://film.one/tv/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher.md) (65) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Michael Fimognari > Mike Flanagan's cinematographer for a decade, Fimognari lights horror with whatever light would really be there and puts the ghost at the back of the frame where nobody is looking. At his best he makes waiting frightening; lately the work has got brighter and louder. The trick is to put something at the back of the frame and not look at it. In *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018) Michael Fimognari shoots the house in browns and blacks, and while a child talks in the foreground a shape stands on the stairs behind her, or a face waits in a doorway nobody uses, and the camera declines to notice. Nothing jumps. On a second viewing we spotted a figure we had missed the first time and did not sleep well, and what did it was not the figure but the stillness: it had been there all along, and nobody on screen had turned to see. He lights a room with what is actually in it, a porch bulb, a candle, the glow from a window, and lets the dark between the lamps stay dark. He has been Mike Flanagan's cinematographer since *Oculus* (2013), ten projects now, and the two have built the kind of shorthand that shows on screen. *Hill House* was the first to make a wider audience notice, and episode six, 'Two Storms', is the reason: the grown Crains in a funeral home during a storm, played out in a handful of unbroken takes, the camera drifting from one argument to the next while the house in 1992 arrives inside the same movement. The credited editors have almost nothing to do in that hour and Fimognari has everything. Patricio M. Farrell's staircase, built to be looked up, gives him somewhere to point. *Midnight Mass* (2021) is quieter and, in its photography, the most patient thing he has done. He shoots the island in long, unhurried takes from far enough away that the houses look like something left out in the weather, and he lights the nights only with what the islanders would have. It is disciplined work in a series that talks too much, and the pictures are often steadier than the sermons under them. Between the horror he shot *To All the Boys I've Loved Before* (2018) on anamorphic lenses, to give it a look of its own, and *Doctor Sleep* (2019) for Flanagan again. *The Fall of the House of Usher* (2023), which he shot in full and directed four episodes of, is where the method loosens. The confession scenes are his best register: near darkness, rain on the glass, one lamp between two men. But the deaths are staged slow and brightly lit, and the children live in a world of white walls and blue screens with nothing waiting at the back of it. The series shouts where Poe whispered, and the camera shouts along. He now directs as well, beginning with *To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You* (2020) and *Always and Forever* (2021), and shoots his own films while he does it: "I've decided to shoot when I direct," he has said. On the evidence of *Usher*, the two jobs have not yet made each other better. The question is whether he can be as patient with himself as he has been with Flanagan. ## Biography Michael Fimognari is an American cinematographer and director. Born on 26 June 1974 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Pennsylvania State University before earning a master's degree in cinematography from the USC School of Cinematic Arts in 2002. He is known for his long collaboration with director Mike Flanagan. Fimognari served as cinematographer on the Netflix series *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018), *Midnight Mass* (2021) and *The Fall of the House of Usher* (2023); on the latter he also directed episodes and acted as executive producer. He was cinematographer on the 2026 series *Carrie*. Other credits include director of photography on *To All the Boys I've Loved Before* (2018) and its sequels, *Doctor Sleep* (2019), *Gerald's Game* (2017) and *Oculus* (2014). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) ### Directed (1) - *The Fall of the House of Usher* (2023), Fi1m 65, Director of Photography, Director, Executive Producer, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher.md) ### Produced (1) — the average rests on these - *Midnight Mass* (2021), Fi1m 72, Co-Producer, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/tv/midnight-mass.md) ### Crew (1) - *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018), Fi1m 80, Director of Photography, Cinematography — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house.md) ## Complete filmography (48) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *The Exorcist: Martyrs* (2027), Director of Photography - *Carrie* (2026), series, Director of Photography — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/tv/carrie-2026.md) - *The Last Kiss* (2026), Director of Photography, Producer - *Jingle Bell Heist* (2025), Director, Executive Producer, Director of Photography - *V/H/S/Beyond* (2024), Director of Photography - *The Fall of the House of Usher* (2023), series, Executive Producer, Director, Director of Photography — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-fall-of-the-house-of-usher.md) - *The Midnight Club* (2022), series, Director - *Midnight Mass* (2021), series, Director of Photography, Co-Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/midnight-mass.md) - *To All the Boys: Always and Forever* (2021), Executive Producer, Director, Director of Photography - *To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You* (2020), Director, Director of Photography - *Doctor Sleep* (2019), Director of Photography - *Le Chat Est Mort* (2019), Director of Photography - *Fast Color* (2019), Director of Photography - *The Haunting of Hill House* (2018), series, Director of Photography — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-haunting-of-hill-house.md) - *To All the Boys I've Loved Before* (2018), Director of Photography - *The Cleanse* (2018), Director of Photography - *Gerald's Game* (2017), Director of Photography - *Before I Fall* (2017), Director of Photography - *Abattoir* (2016), Director of Photography - *Ouija: Origin of Evil* (2016), Director of Photography - *Before I Wake* (2016), Director of Photography - *Misconduct* (2016), Director of Photography - *Visions* (2015), Director of Photography - *Demonic* (2015), Director of Photography - *The Lazarus Effect* (2015), Director of Photography - *Jessabelle* (2014), Director of Photography - *10 Cent Pistol* (2014), Director of Photography - *Oculus* (2014), Director of Photography - *Crawlspace* (2013), Director of Photography - *Tomorrow You're Gone* (2012), Director of Photography - *The Millionaire Tour* (2012), Director of Photography - *96 Minutes* (2011), Director of Photography - *Beautiful Boy* (2011), Director of Photography - *Au Revoir Taipei* (2010), Director of Photography - *Brotherhood* (2010), Director of Photography - *Dare* (2009), Director of Photography - *Yonkers Joe* (2008), Director of Photography - *Shuttle* (2008), Director of Photography - *The Neighbor* (2007), Director of Photography - *Black Irish* (2007), Director of Photography - *Everybody Wants to Be Italian* (2007), Director of Photography - *Unrest* (2006), Director of Photography - *Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film* (2006), Director of Photography - *The 12 Dogs of Christmas* (2005), Director of Photography - *Knots* (2004), Director of Photography - *Ocha Cups for Christmas* (2002), Director, Screenplay, Producer - *Casablanca* (2002), Director of Photography - *Epilogue*, Director --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/michael-fimognari