Biography

Born and raised in northern Italy, Piero Basso graduated Summa Cum Laude with a Master of Arts in Liberal Studies from the University of Turin, with a specialization in Cinema Studies. While writing his thesis on the works of David Lynch, he already knew that Cinematography would be his ultimate pursuit.

Piero began building a career as a director of photography while also specializing as a Steadicam operator. He built his first years collaborating with some of the most talented director of his generation, including Gianluca and Massimiliano de Serio and Susanna Nicchiarelli. In 2008 he moved to the United States of America, to New York, where he still lives today, while keeping a strong professional connection with Europe and Italy.

In 2009, after being invited to join the AIC (Italian Association of Cinematographers), he was in competition at the 29th Turin Film Festival with Santina directed by Gioberto Pignatelli, and in 2011 he was the cinematographer for Sette Opere di Misericordia, debut feature film for Gianluca and Massimiliano de Serio, presented in Competition at the 64th Locarno Film Festival.

The following years saw him mainly active in the USA shooting, between others, on Lanre Olabisi’s Somewhere in the Middle, Meredith Edwards’ Imagine I’m Beautiful and Rick Lopez's American Genius for National Geographic. In 2014 Piero comes back to Italy to light the first feature of Levi Riso (as Sebastiano) Più Buio di Mezzanotte, for a world premiere at the Semaine of the Critique during the 67th Cannes Film Festival the following year.

In the latest years, Piero has been active on multiple fronts. He filmed Min Alesh?, a feature film in Ethiopia directed by Amleset Muchie with local creative team and talents, while working as well with director Greg Naughton on The Independents, Teresa Costantini on Here and Now, Marco Risi on L’Aquila Grandi Speranze, a television series on the aftermath of the 2009 Earthquake. He has teamed again with Levi Riso (as Sebastiano) for Una Famiglia, in competition at the 74th Venice Film Festival, and worked for the first time with Federico Bondi on Dafne, presented in the Panorama Section at the 69th Berlin Film Festival and winner of the Fipresci award as Best Feature Film of the section. In the USA he worked with director Robert Jury on Working Man, with Peter Gerety, Talia Shire and Billy Brown as lead actors and recently lensed the first feature film of screenwriter Daniel Talbott and actress Samantha Soule, Midday Black Midnight Blue.

In 2025 Canone Effimero, his new collaboration with Gianluca and Massimiliano de Serio opened at the Berlin Film Festival Forum where has received a Special Mention from the Documentary Jury Award.

In 2018 he became the Chair of the Cinematography Program for New York Film Academy at the New York Campus, a role he held until the end of 2024 when the Cinematography Dept. was integrated into a larger Film Arts Dept. Currently he is the Cinematography Team Leader for both the CInematography and Filmmaking courses.

Piero Basso is based in NYC, where he lives with his wife, daughter and son. He is bilingual and holds permanent residency in the U.S and European Citizenship.
- IMDb mini biography by: Piero Basso, AIC

New York City, New York