Matthew Steven Leutwyler (born July 23, 1969), is an American screenplay writer, film director, and producer.

Life and career

Leutwyler studied film at The San Francisco Art Institute. His first feature film was the

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

/road picture '' Road Kill'' starring Jennifer Rubin, Erik Palladino, Brian Vander Ark,

Anthony Denison Anthony John Sarrero (born September 20, 1949), also known by his stage name Anthony Denison (also credited as Anthony John Denison and Tony Denison), is an American actor. Early life The eldest of three, he was born and raised in Harlem. He wo ...

, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jon Polito. Made on a budget of $180,000, the film premiered at the 1999

Santa Barbara International Film Festival The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) is an eleven-day film festival held in Santa Barbara, California in February annually, since 1986. The festival screens over 200 feature films and shorts from different countries and regions. ...

where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. Leutwyler wrote and directed the comedy/horror/musical '' Dead & Breakfast'' (

South by Southwest Film Festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both s ...

2004), starring Jeremy Sisto, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and David Carradine. The film went on to win over a dozen audience and best feature film awards around the world and was nominated for a

Saturn Award The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films bel ...

. Since then he has produced or exec produced '' The Oh in Ohio'' starring Parker Posey and Paul Rudd; ''

Lower Learning ''Lower Learning'' is a 2008 American black comedy film starring Jason Biggs, Eva Longoria, Rob Corddry, Ryan Newman (actress), Ryan Newman, Monica Potter, and Andy Pessoa. It was directed by Mark Lafferty, and written by Lafferty and Shahin Chand ...

'' with Eva Longoria,

Jason Biggs Jason Matthew Biggs (born May 12, 1978) is an American actor. The accolades he has received include a Screen Actors Guild Awards, Screen Actors Guild Award, alongside nominations for a Daytime Emmy Awards, Daytime Emmy Award and a Satellite Award ...

, and Rob Corddry; '' Against the Current'' with Joseph Fiennes,

Mary Tyler Moore Mary Tyler Moore (December 29, 1936 – January 25, 2017) was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on '' The Dick Van Dyke Show'' (1961–1966) and ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977), whic ...

and Justin Kirk (

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

2009); the

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. He starred in ''WarGames'' (1983) as a teen government hacker, and ''Ladyhawke (film), Ladyhawke'' (1985), a medieval fantasy alongside Rutger Hauer and Michelle Pfeiffer. He play ...

and Sanaa Lathan drama '' Wonderful World'' (Tribeca 2010); and '' Every Day'', starring

Helen Hunt Helen Elizabeth Hunt (born June 15, 1963) is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, four Primetime Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. Hunt rose to fame portraying newlywed Jamie Buchman in the sitcom '' Mad Abou ...

and Liev Schreiber (

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

2011). May 6, 2011 Deadline Hollywood announced that he will be producing the Catherine Hardwicke (''

Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

'')-directed drama ''The Bitch Posse''. He will be producing alongside his Ambush Entertainment partner Miranda Bailey and Title IX partners Virginia Madsen and Karly Meola. Leutwyler directed the adaptation of the novel '' The River Why'' ( Mill Valley Film Festival 2010) starring William Hurt, Zach Gilford, and Amber Heard. He also exec produced

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1996). He then began working as a director, starting wi ...

's ''

Super Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter/player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard butto ...

'' (

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

2012) starring Rainn Wilson and

Elliot Page Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page; born February 21, 1987) is a Canadian actor, producer, and activist. He is known for his leading roles across Canadian and American film and television, and for his outspoken work as an activist for LGBTQ righ ...

; the 3D horror comedy '' Hellbenders'' and the comedy-drama '' The Girl Most Likely'', starring Kristen Wiig and

Annette Bening Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. With a career spanning over four decades, she is known for List of Annette Bening performances, her versatile work across screen and stage. Bening has received List of awards an ...

(

2011). He wrote and directed the ensemble drama '' Answers to Nothing'' starring

Dane Cook Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He is known for his use of observational comedy, observational, often blue comedy, vulgar, and sometimes black comedy, dark comedy. He released six comedy ...

Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including Wester ...

, and

Julie Benz Julie Benz (born May 1, 1972) is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Darla (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Darla on ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer'' and ''Angel (1999 TV series), Angel'' (1997–2004), and as Rita Bennett on ''Dexter (TV s ...

. He produced the award-winning food documentary '' Spinning Plates'' (2014). Leutwyler co-founded the theatrical distributor The Film Arcade in 2012. For two years, he worked on the marketing of Jill Soloway's Sundance winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee '' Afternoon Delight'' starring Kathryn Hahn and

Jane Lynch Jane Marie Lynch (born July 14, 1960) is an American actress, comedian, and singer. Known for playing starring and recurring roles in comedic television, her accolades include one Golden Globe, five Primetime Emmys and two Screen Actors Gui ...

, as well as other Sundance entries '' The Other Dream Team'', and '' A.C.O.D.'' with

Amy Poehler Amy Meredith Poehler ( ; born September 16, 1971) is an American actress and comedian. Known for her roles in sketch comedy, sitcoms and comedy films, she has earned acclaim and several accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award (out of 26 nom ...

, Adam Scott, and

Jessica Alba Jessica Marie Alba ( ; born April 28, 1981) is an American actress and businesswoman. She began her acting career at age 13 in ''Camp Nowhere'', followed up by ''The Secret World of Alex Mack'' (both 1994), and rose to prominence at age 19 as ...

. He left the company in 2014. On January 31, 2015, Leutwyler premiered ''

Uncanny The uncanny is the psychological experience of an event or thing that is unsettling in a way that feels oddly familiar, rather than simply mysterious. This phenomenon is used to describe incidents where a familiar entity is encountered in a frig ...

'' at the

. ''Uncanny'' is a science fiction film about the world's first "perfect" Artificial Intelligence who begins to exhibit startling and unnerving emergent behavior when a reporter begins a relationship with the scientist who created it.

Filmography

Producer * ''

'' (2008) * '' Wonderful World'' (2008) * '' Every Day'' (2010) * ''Spinning Plates'' (2013) * ''The Bitch Posse'' (2014) Executive producer * '' The Oh in Ohio'' (2006) * '' Against the Current'' (2009) * ''

'' (2010) * '' Imogene'' (2013) * '' Hellbenders'' (2013) Television

References

External links

Santa Barbara Independent Feb 2015 Interview with Matthew Leutwyler

Ambush Entertainment
*

SFist interview and photo of Matthew Leutwyler

Deadline announcement of Bitch Posse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leutwyler, Matthew 1969 births Film directors from San Francisco Living people Redwood High School (Larkspur, California) alumni San Francisco Art Institute alumni