Maxim Arbugaev born in Tiksi, Russia, on the shoreline of the Arctic Ocean. Russian director and cinematographer Maxim Arbugaev wanted to grow up to be a professional ice hockey player. Discovering his passion for cinematography in the solitude of Russian Arctic, he studied documentary filmmaking at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography in Moscow.

Maxim is a winner of various international film festivals, including Sundance Film Festival 2018 where he received a World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Cinematography for a film Genesis 2.0, which he co-directed with Christian Frei.