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 any matter considered unclean, 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 * Du ...

'' (2020) and ''

Lavender ''Lavandula'' (common name lavender) is a genus of 47 known species of perennial flowering plants in the sage family, Lamiaceae. It is native plant, native to the Old World, primarily found across the drier, warmer regions of the Mediterranean ...

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

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

Aspen Shortsfest The Aspen Shortsfest is an annual Oscar-qualifying short film festival held in Aspen, Colorado. It is run by Aspen Film, which has also run the feature film festival, Aspen Filmfest, since 1979. History and description Aspen Film was founded b ...

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

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

.Alumni Spotlight - Matthew Puccini – NFFTY
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Life and career

Puccini grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

. 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. Th ...

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 HIV/AIDS, in serum, saliva, or urine. Such tests may detect antibodies, antigens, or RNA. AIDS diagnosis AIDS is diagnosed separate ...

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 the HBO series '' High Maintenance''.Jenki ...

. 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 LGBTQ 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 a ...

. 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. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...

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 cente ...

. 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), and ''The Mauritanian'' (2021). The company also produc ...

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

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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'' and ''Tiny Pretty Things'', respectively. Rosen also starred in the Broadway revivals of ''Torch Song'' and ''W ...

, 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 comedy drama television series ''Ugly Betty'' and Brian on the Apple TV+ series '' Shrinking'', a role for which he won ...

. 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 * '' ...

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

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’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 film ...

. Its distribution rights were acquired by

Fox Searchlight Pictures Searchlight Pictures, Inc., formerly known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, is an American arthouse film production and distribution company, which since 2019 is owned by Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the ...

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 Morg ...

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 BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival, formerly known as the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival (LLGFF), is the biggest LGBTIQ+ film festival in Europe. It takes place every spring in London, England. Organised and run by the British Film In ...

, Outfest Fusion,

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

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 distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films". A "sister company" of arthouse film distributor ...

. In 2024, Puccini and ''Lavender'' co-producer Casey Bader participated in the Creators Market at that year's

Tribeca 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 ...

to pitch what they hope will be Puccini's feature directorial debut.

Personal life

Puccini lives in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Film festival awards

References

External links

*
Matthew Puccini on MubiMatthew Puccini website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puccini, Matthew American film producers American male screenwriters American film editors American LGBTQ film directors American LGBTQ 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 Film directors from Brooklyn 1990s births Living people Year of birth uncertain