Matt De Sousa is an award-winning bilingual (eng/jp) cinematographer and documentary filmmaker based in Sydney, Australia. Originally from Melbourne, he began his filmmaking career after moving to Tokyo, Japan to study on a language scholarship. Initially juggling freelance work as a travel writer and music photographer, he eventually landed on Japanese film sets as a cinematographer. Guided by an appetite for the weird and wonderful, Matt found himself working on a wide range of short and long-form documentaries for Netflix, NHK and VICE among others, spanning subjects from traditional Japanese tattooing, to international criminal cases, to an intimate portrait of rockstar Gene Simmons of KISS.
His most recent feature documentary project, ‘Tokito: The 540-day Journey of a Culinary Maverick’, filmed in Japan over two years, had its Australian premiere in 2025 at the Sydney Film Festival, and in 2026 was given an Award of Distinction in the Documentary category at the Australian Cinematographer Society National Awards.
AWARDS
ACS 2026 National Award of Distinction for Cinematography - Documentaries
ACS 2025 NSW Branch Gold Award - Documentaries
Matt is available for short or long-form documentary, narrative and commercial projects.
All enquiries: contact@mattdesousa.com