Director of Photography · Director · Documentary Filmmaker
Morteza
Hodaei
Director of Photography / Director / Documentary Filmmaker
An Iranian-Canadian visual storyteller with more than two decades of experience across feature films, television, documentaries, commercials and large-scale multi-camera productions. For him, cinema begins with light and the camera is a way of shaping emotion through shadow, movement and time.
Member of CSCMember of Asia PacificIranian Society of CinematographersShort Film Association
01 / Biography
Light is everything.
What could be more dreamlike than a profession built around playing with light?
For Morteza Hodaei, light is not only a technical element; it is the soul of the image. It can reveal, hide, wound, heal, and transform a moment into cinema.
Born in Tehran, Morteza began his career in cinema in 1998 as a cameraman on short films. Over more than two decades, he has worked across feature films, television series, documentaries, commercials, and large-scale multi-camera productions. His cinematography combines emotional realism with carefully controlled visual atmosphere, searching for the point where story, character, movement, and light become one.
25+Years of experience
1998First years in cinema
TorontoCanada based
02 / Selected Work
Feature films and major credits.
Beginnings
Early years behind the camera
On Set
Camera, movement, light
2026 · Documentary Drama
The Court
of History
A legal docudrama about transitional justice and the difficult questions a society faces when confronting a legacy of state violence. Through a fictional trial grounded in international fair-trial standards, the film examines the boundaries between justice, punishment, revenge and forgiveness.
Executive ProducerMorteza Hodaei
Director of PhotographyMorteza Hodaei
DirectorJamshid Barzegar
Written bySaeid Dehghan · Jamshid Barzegar
03 / Directing
Selected directing work.
Short Film
Band Baz
A short film written and directed by Morteza Hodaei.
Writer & DirectorMorteza Hodaei
CastFarzad Bagheri, Amir Safiri, Keyvan Saketouf, Diba Saman, Mehdi Miri
Director of PhotographyHomayoun Ghorbani
Sound RecordistMehrad Abolghasemi
Edited byEmad Khodabakhsh
Assistant DirectorAlireza Langroudi
04 / Documentary
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Current Documentary Project
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A documentary project exploring memory, migration, pressure, freedom, and the emotional cost of living under dictatorship. The film moves between personal experience and collective history, using cinema as a way to hold grief, resistance, and the possibility of renewal in the same frame.
05 / Awards & Festivals
Cinema travels through light, memory, and recognition.
Shanghai International Film Festival
With Nuri Bilge Ceylan at the closing ceremony. A featured festival moment placed here as a key career image.
06 / Gallery
Behind the camera.
Cinematography Reel
Morteza’s Showreel
Contact
Let’s create cinematic images.
mortezahodaei@gmail.comIMDb ProfileWikipedia Profile
Morteza Hodaei — Director of Photography / Director / Documentary Filmmaker. Based in Toronto, Canada.