António (Tony) Costa
António (Tony) Costa
Documentary Skills
Cinematography Workshops
Instructor (2013-2020)
Tony Costa is a cinematographer and a film school instructor based in Lisbon, Portugal.
He holds a Master degree in Film Studies and counts with more than two decades of experience in the film business. He has worked in the camera department most of the time, and recently has experienced working as just a bit as director and producer.
After finishing high school in the late 70’s in Portugal, Tony moved for a short period of time to his homeland Toronto/Canada in the 80’s where he attended several courses and workshops in the field of film cameras and cinema in general, and began working as a second assistant in a few small productions.
His main career was launched in 1989 after returning back to Portugal where he worked as an assistant camera on foreign productions, mainly French TV films that were shot at the time in Portugal, climbing quickly as focus-puller. This period of time gave him the opportunity to work with many prominent cinematographers from all over the world.
In 2002 he shot his first feature film, «Sans Elle» directed by Anna de Palma. Since then he has mainly worked as a camera operator and cinematographer in various Portuguese feature films, documentaries, shorts, corporate videos and commercials.
Apart from his professional activities he co-founded and was president of the Portuguese Society of Cinematographers, and co-founded the recent Portuguese Film Academy. He was also vice-president of IMAGO (The European Federation of Cinematographers) from 2004 to 2008. He was editor of Portuguese cinematography magazines and the online Production Guide www.cineguiaportugal.com.
Since 2004 Tony Costa is an instructor of cinematography in the Lusófona University, where he is head of the camera department. He also teaches in other film schools such as ESTC and Restart Institute in Lisbon.
