Matthias Fleischer studied cinematography and built his reputation through an extensive early body of short and medium-length work that attracted immediate recognition: his student short Kuscheldoktor won the Deutscher Kamerapreis, the Eastman Förderpreis and a foreign student Academy Award nomination in 2002–03, and Vida! Fragmento de un recuerdo received a second Deutscher Kamerapreis the same year. He is a member of the German Society of Cinematographers (BVK), the German Academy of Motion Pictures (DFA) and the European Film Academy, and is based in Berlin and Munich.

His feature career has been defined by a sustained collaboration with director Alain Gsponer — together they made Rose (2005), Kiki & Tiger (2002), Life Actually (2006), My Words, My Lies – My Love (2009), The Last Weynfeldt (2010), The Little Ghost (2012), Grüninger’s Fall (2012) and the international family film Heidi (2015). His work with director Florian Cossen includes The Day I Wasn’t Born (2010), which won the Bayerischer Filmpreis for Best Cinematography and a Deutscher Filmpreis nomination, and the TV series Deutschland86 (2017). Die Kleine Hexe (Mike Schaerer, 2016) brought a second Bayerischer Filmpreis. His recent work includes A Better Place (Anne Zohra Berrached et al., 2023) and the feature Zoma (Alireza Golafshan, 2026). He speaks German, English and Spanish.