Matthew Puccini (born ) is an American filmmaker. He is known for his short films that deal with LGBT-related subject matters. These include '' The Mess He Made'' (2017), ''Marquise'' (2018), ''

Dirty Dirt is an unclean matter, especially when in contact with a person's clothes, skin, or possessions. In such cases, they are said to become dirty. Common types of dirt include: * Debris: scattered pieces of waste or remains * Dust: a genera ...

'' (2020) and ''

Lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to the Old World and is found in Cape Verde and the Canary Islands, and from Europe across to northern and easte ...

'' (2019). His films have played at several festivals including

Sundance A Sun Dance is a Native American ceremony. Sun dance or Sundance may also refer to: Places ;Canada *Sundance, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood *Sundance, Manitoba, a ghost town ;United States * Sundance, New Mexico, a census-designated place ...

SXSW South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Te ...

Aspen Shortsfest The Aspen Shortsfest is an annual Oscar® qualifying short film festival held in Aspen, Colorado. The internationally-recognized festival began in 1979. In 2003, director Lionel Bailliu was given the Shortfest Award for the 2002 French short fi ...

, Palm Springs ShortsFest, and Outfest Los Angeles. His work has also been featured on

Topic Topic, topics, TOPIC, topical, or topicality may refer to: Topic / Topics * Topić, a Slavic surname * ''Topics'' (Aristotle), a work by Aristotle * Topic (chocolate bar), a brand of confectionery bar * Topic (DJ), German musician * Topic (g ...

and

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

.Alumni Spotlight - Matthew Puccini — NFFTY
/ref>

Life and career

Puccini grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. 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 The First Run Festival is an annual event showcasing over 120 intermediate and advanced projects in film, video, and animation. It is presented by the Kanbar Institute of Film & Television. and held in New York City. The event first ran in 1986. ...

and won the 2017 Golden Reel Award for Best Student Film at the Tiburon International Film Festival. After graduating from NYU in 2017, Puccini made his next film, ''The Mess He Made'', which showed the experience of waiting for the results of an

HIV test HIV tests are used to detect the presence of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), in serum, saliva, or urine. Such tests may detect antibodies, antigens, or RNA. AIDS diagnos ...

through the eyes of a man, played by

Max Jenkins Max Jenkins (born March 13, 1985) is an American actor and writer. He starred as Max Carnegie in NBC's comedy-drama detective series ''The Mysteries of Laura''. He is also known for his appearances in HBO's acclaimed series ''High Maintenance'' ...

. The film premiered at

in 2017, where it became a finalist for the

Iris Prize The Iris Prize, established in by Berwyn Rowlands of The Festivals Company, is an international LGBT film prize and festival which is open to any film which is by, for, about or of interest to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender or intersex au ...

. That same year, Puccini became a member of the 2017

New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, it is ...

Artist Academy, a Richie Jackson Fellow at Tisch School of the Arts and a Creative Culture Fellow at the

Jacob Burns Film Center The Jacob Burns Film Center (JBFC) is a nonprofit cultural arts center located in Pleasantville, New York. It occupies the old Rome Theater, a Spanish mission-style theater built in 1925. Along with independent and documentary films, the center ...

. He then produced two more short films, ''Stumped'' and ''Marquise'', the latter of which was acquired for streaming by

Topic Studios ''Topic Studios'' is an American film production company owned by First Look Media. The company is known for producing films '' Leave No Trace'' (2018), ''Luce'' (2019), '' The Climb'' (2019), ''The Mauritanian'' (2021). The company also produces ...

. In 2018, Puccini was named a Sundance Ignite Fellow. He created a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign to fund ''Lavender'', which he then produced later that year, starring

Michael Hsu Rosen Michael Hsu Rosen is an American actor and dancer best known for his roles as Jayden and Nabil in the Netflix series ''Pretty Smart (TV series), Pretty Smart'' and ''Tiny Pretty Things'', respectively. Rosen also starred in the Broadway theatre, ...

, Ken Barnett and

Michael Urie Michael Lorenzo Urie (born August 8, 1980) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of Marc St. James on the ABC dramedy television series ''Ugly Betty''. He can be heard as Bobby Kerns in ''As the Curtain Rises'', an original podcas ...

. The film premiered at the

2019 Sundance Film Festival The 2019 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 24 to February 3, 2019. The first lineup of competition films was announced on November 28, 2018. Films U.S. Dramatic Competition * '' Before You Know It'' by Hannah Pearl Utt * ''B ...

and was nominated for both the festival's Short Film Grand Jury Prize and

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

’s Best Drama of 2019, and won the Here Media Award for Best Queer Short Film at the

Provincetown International Film Festival The Provincetown International Film Festival (PIFF) is an annual film festival founded in 1999 and held on Cape Cod in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The festival presents American and international narrative features, documentaries and short films f ...

. Its distribution rights were acquired by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc. is an American film production company and a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is part of the Walt Disney Company. Founded in 1994 as Fox Searchlight Pictures, Inc. for 20th Century Fox (later 20th Century St ...

after its Sundance premiere. In 2020, his next film, ''Dirty'' premiered at the

2020 Sundance Film Festival The 2020 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 23 to February 2, 2020. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 4, 2019. The opening night film was ''Miss Americana'' directed by Lana Wilson and produced by Morgan ...

and was nominated for the Jury Award for Best Short Film. The film was screened virtually at SXSW due to the COVID-19 pandemic, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Award for Narrative Short and received a Special Jury Award for Acting. It then went on to play at BFI Flare, Outfest Fusion,

Atlanta Film Festival The Atlanta Film Festival (ATLFF) is a long-running, international film festival held in Atlanta, Georgia operated by the Atlanta Film Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Started in 1976 and occurring every spring, the festival shows a ...

and the Palm Springs ShortsFest. In October 2020, the film's streaming rights were acquired by

The Criterion Channel The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

. Puccini lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Film festival awards

References

External links

*
Matthew Puccini MubiMatthew Puccini website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puccini, Matthew American film producers American male screenwriters American film editors LGBT film directors LGBT screenwriters American gay writers New York University alumni Tisch School of the Arts alumni Film directors from New York (state) Film directors from San Francisco People from San Francisco People from Brooklyn 1990s births Living people Year of birth uncertain