Matthew Puccini

Matthew Puccini (born c.1993) is an American filmmaker. He is known for his short films that deal with LGBT-related subject matters.[1] These include The Mess He Made (2017), Marquise (2018), Dirty (2020) and Lavender (2019), the last of which was acquired by Searchlight Pictures (formerly Fox Searchlight Pictures) for an Academy Award-qualifying theatrical run following its Sundance premiere. His work has played at several festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Aspen Shortsfest, Palm Springs ShortsFest, and Outfest Los Angeles. His work has also been featured on Topic and The Huffington Post.[2][3][4][5][6]

Matthew Puccini
Born1992/1993 (age 28–29)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materNew York University (BFA)
OccupationDirector, Producer, Writer, Editor
Years active2010–present
Websitehttp://www.matthewpuccini.com

Life and career

Puccini grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2015, while attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, he made his first film as writer and director, Solo, which starred Tommy Nelson and Matthew Mindler. It earned Puccini the King Award for Screenwriting at NYU’s First Run Film Festival and won the 2017 Golden Reel Award for Best Student Film at the Tiburon International Film Festival.[7][8]

After graduating from NYU that year, he went to work for “an extremely demanding producer,” in order to make his next film, The Mess He Made, which showed the experience of waiting for the results of an HIV test through the eyes of a man, played by Max Jenkins.[9][10] The film premiered at SXSW in 2017, where it became a finalist for the Iris Prize. That same year, Puccini became a member of the 2017 New York Film Festival Artist Academy, a Richie Jackson Fellow at Tisch School of the Arts and a Creative Culture Fellow at the Jacob Burns Film Center. He then produced two more short films, Stumped and Marquise, the latter of which was acquired for streaming by Topic Studios.[11]

In 2018, Puccini was named a Sundance Ignite Fellow.[12] This and the successes of his films gave Puccini enough leverage to create a Kickstarter campaign in order to fund Lavender, which he then produced later that year, starring Michael Hsu Rosen, Ken Barnett and Michael Urie. The film was nominated for both Sundance's Short Film Grand Jury Prize and Vimeo’s Best Drama of 2019, and won the Here Media Award for Best Queer Short Film at the Provincetown International Film Festival.[13]

His most recent film, Dirty, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Jury Award for Best Short Film, and then screened virtually at SXSW, in which the physical screening was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[14][15] However, the film still got nominated there for the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short and received a Special Jury Award for the performances of the film's two stars, Manny Dunn and Morgan Sullivan.[16][17] It then went on to play at BFI Flare, Outfest Fusion, Atlanta Film Festival and the Palm Springs ShortsFest.[18][19] In October 2020, the film's streaming rights were acquired by The Criterion Channel.[20]

Puccini, as of now, lives in Los Angeles, and is currently in development on his first feature film and in post-production on the short documentary, Queer/Elder, which will be released in 2021.[21]

Filmography

YearTitleRoleNotes
2013A Fiberglass AffairEditorNarrative short
2014Do Us PartEditorNarrative short
2014AnchoviesEditorNarrative short
2015Backyard PortalEditorNarrative short
2015SoloDirector, writerNarrative short
2016Where People Hide AwayEditorNarrative short
2016Burning ChildEditorNarrative short
2017The Mess He MadeDirector, writerNarrative short
2017StumpedDirector, writer, editorNarrative short
2018MarquiseDirector, writer, editorDocumentary short
2019LavenderDirector, writerNarrative short
2020DirtyDirector, producer, writerNarrative short
2021Queer/ElderDirectorDocumentary short

Awards and nominations

Film festival awards

Year Festival Film Award Result Notes
2016 NYU First Run Film Festival Solo King Award for Screenwriting Won
2017 Tiburon International Film Festival Golden Reel Award for Best Student Film Won
SXSW Film Festival The Mess He Made Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short Nominated
Sarasota Film Festival Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Short Competition Nominated
2019 Sundance Film Festival Lavender Grand Jury Prize - Short Film Nominated
Sarasota Film Festival Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Short Competition Nominated
SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short Nominated
Provincetown International Film Festival Here Media Award - Best Queer Short Film Won
2020 Sundance Film Festival Dirty Grand Jury Prize - Short Film Nominated
SXSW Film Festival Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short Nominated
Palm Springs International ShortFest Best LGBTQ+ Short Nominated
Montclair Film Festival Fiction Shorts Competition Nominated

References

  1. "Matthew Puccini". Filmmaker Magazine. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  2. About — Matthew Puccini
  3. Alumni Spotlight - Matthew Puccini — NFFTY
  4. Matthew Puccini
  5. Sundance: Fox Searchlight Buys ‘Lavender’ With Michael Urie – Variety
  6. "Michael Urie Heads Gay Throuple in Evocative Fox Searchlight Short 'Lavender' — Watch". IndieWire. 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  7. "2016 Wasserman Awards". NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  8. "2017 Golden Reel Awards". Tiburon International Film Festival. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  9. "Watch This Short Film on the Terror of HIV Tests, 'The Mess He Made'". www.advocate.com. 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  10. "'High Maintenance' Star Max Jenkins Sheds the Laughs in Poignant Short Film About Waiting for an HIV Test — Watch". IndieWire. 2017-12-01. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  11. "Fox Searchlight acquires Matthew Puccini's 'Lavender' Short Film". The Wrap. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  12. "Sundance Institute Announces 2018 Sundance Ignite Fellows". Sundance Institute. 2019-01-25. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  13. Torch Song’s Michael Urie and Michael Hsu Rosen Reunite in Short Film Lavender at Sundance | Playbill
  14. "2020 Sundance Preview: 10 Must-See Short Films in Park City". IndieWire. 2020-01-23. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  15. "SXSW Film Festival Shorts To Stream On Mailchimp Presents". Deadline. 2020-03-05. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  16. "The 2020 SXSW Film Festival Announces Jury and Special Awards". SXSW. 2020-03-24. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  17. "SXSW 2020: Best Short Films Streaming Online". The Young Folks. 2020-05-09. Retrieved 2020-06-03.
  18. "Palm Springs ShortFest Selects 2020 Films". Palm Springs Life. 2020-06-05. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  19. "Take a look: ShortFest announces lineup of 332 short films". Palm Springs Desert Sun. 2020-06-04. Retrieved 2020-06-05.
  20. "October 2020 Programming on the Criterion Channel Announced". Criterion Cast. 2020-09-24. Retrieved 2020-12-25.
  21. About — Matthew Puccini


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