Luke Matheny
Encyclopedia
Luke Matheny is an American
actor, writer, and director. Matheny is an Academy Award
winner, receiving the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
for God of Love
.
, the son of DiAnn and Mat Matheny, a pipe welder and furniture designer. He graduated from Wilmington's Concord High School in 1993 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1997 from Northwestern University
's Medill School of Journalism
. He later worked as a reporter and copy editor for a variety of trade magazines and web sites in Chicago. His career includes stints as a synopsis writer for Netflix
and as a story editor for the MTV
series Made
.
In 1998 Matheny developed a plan with three friends to shoot a movie about three underappreciated losers from Chicago who quit their jobs, move to Paris, and become street musicians. Matheny and his friends quit their jobs, moved to Paris, and started shooting the film in May 2001. The film premiered at the 2003 Wilmington Independent Film Festival. Matheny recalled, "It was weird; we hit the ground and started casting people off the street. We were hanging out with Parisian models. It was like this weird Cinderella experience. At the end of it we were all completely broke and living with our parents. ... There're probably 33 funny minutes in it, but we really had no idea what we were doing at all. And at some point I decided that I really wanted to keep doing this."
as a graduate student in the film program. His first student film at NYU was Earano, a comic twist on Cyrano de Bergerac
, with the title character having unusually large ears instead of a large nose. "Earano" won the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada
. In its review of Earano, New York Magazine wrote: "One of our favorites of recent years comes in the form of Earano, a charming and hilarious short film directed by and starring Luke Matheny, in which our lead hero has not a giant proboscis but two giant ears, and longs for a beautiful librarian (Emily Young), who has eyes for a hunky Ukrainian janitor."
For his thesis project at NYU, Matheny wrote, directed and starred in the Academy Award-winning film, God of Love
. The film is a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow (portrayed by Matheny) "who finds his prayers are answered – literally – when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts." The catch is that the woman he loves, a drummer in his band, is in love with Ray's best friend, the guitarist in the band. Matheny funded "God of Love" with a combination of student loans, his savings and some production grants, and shot the film in 10 days. Matheny described the bohemian feel he sought to establish for the film as follows:
for "God of Love." The film had previously been rejected by Sundance and Slamdance. In a pre-Oscars interview, Matheny noted, "The Oscar nomination means a ton to me. I've been kind of a psycho Oscar fan my whole life and even, at one point, memorized every Best Picture winner -- which is still a pretty good party trick -- so to actually get a nomination is an amazing event in my life."
Matheny's acceptance speech was considered one of the highlights of the Academy Awards telecast. Descriptions of Matheny's appearance at the award ceremony ranged from the merely descriptive ("mop-haired," "bushy-haired,") to the critical ("somewhat shaggy-looking," "Brillo-headed," and "a vast black bouffant that makes him look like an untidy microphone.") and even laudatory ("follicularly fecund," the "God of Hair"). TV Guide
rated him as the "Worst Groomed" nominee. At the start of his acceptance speech, Matheny, joked, "I should've gotten a haircut." He went on to thank his mother, who provided craft services on the film, the "great state of Delaware," and "the love of my life," the Russian-born composer, Sasha Gordon, who scored the film. The Los Angeles Times
reported it was "safe to say he was out of his comfort zone during the star-studded event," and noted that Matheny admitted he was "standing behind Robert Downey Jr.
, trying to get on TV." The Salt Lake Tribune
called him "a contender for the best acceptance speech." The Calgary Herald
reported, "We didn't know who Luke Matheny was before he won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short for God of Love, but we fell in love with him the moment the mop-haired director opened his mouth ... The young filmmaker's enthusiasm was infectious, and even the Hollywood elite applauded when Matheny thanked his mother ..."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor, writer, and director. Matheny is an Academy Award
83rd Academy Awards
The 83rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2010 and took place February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, Academy Awards ...
winner, receiving the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...
for God of Love
God of Love (film)
God of Love is an American live action short film. The film's run time is approximately 18 minutes. It was written and directed by Luke Matheny, and produced by Gigi Dement, Ryan Silbert, and Stefanie Walmsley...
.
Early years
Matheny grew up in Wilmington, DelawareWilmington, Delaware
Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...
, the son of DiAnn and Mat Matheny, a pipe welder and furniture designer. He graduated from Wilmington's Concord High School in 1993 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1997 from Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
's Medill School of Journalism
Medill School of Journalism
The Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications is a constituent school of Northwestern University which offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. It has consistently been one of the top-ranked schools in Journalism in the United States...
. He later worked as a reporter and copy editor for a variety of trade magazines and web sites in Chicago. His career includes stints as a synopsis writer for Netflix
Netflix
Netflix, Inc., is an American provider of on-demand internet streaming media in the United States, Canada, and Latin America and flat rate DVD-by-mail in the United States. The company was established in 1997 and is headquartered in Los Gatos, California...
and as a story editor for the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
series Made
Made (TV series)
MTV's MADE is a self-improvement reality television series broadcast on MTV. The series follows teens who have a goal and want to be "made" into things like singers, athletes, dancers, skateboarders, etc. The teens are joined by a "Made Coach", an expert in their chosen field, who tries to help...
.
In 1998 Matheny developed a plan with three friends to shoot a movie about three underappreciated losers from Chicago who quit their jobs, move to Paris, and become street musicians. Matheny and his friends quit their jobs, moved to Paris, and started shooting the film in May 2001. The film premiered at the 2003 Wilmington Independent Film Festival. Matheny recalled, "It was weird; we hit the ground and started casting people off the street. We were hanging out with Parisian models. It was like this weird Cinderella experience. At the end of it we were all completely broke and living with our parents. ... There're probably 33 funny minutes in it, but we really had no idea what we were doing at all. And at some point I decided that I really wanted to keep doing this."
NYU, "Earano," and "God of Love"
Matheny moved to New York in 2004 and enrolled at NYU Tisch School of the ArtsTisch School of the Arts
Tisch School of the Arts is one of the 15 schools that make up New York University ....
as a graduate student in the film program. His first student film at NYU was Earano, a comic twist on Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (play)
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
, with the title character having unusually large ears instead of a large nose. "Earano" won the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada
Boulder City, Nevada
Boulder City is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It is approximately from the City of Las Vegas. As of the 2010 census the population of Boulder City was 15,023.Boulder City is one of only two cities in Nevada that prohibit gambling....
. In its review of Earano, New York Magazine wrote: "One of our favorites of recent years comes in the form of Earano, a charming and hilarious short film directed by and starring Luke Matheny, in which our lead hero has not a giant proboscis but two giant ears, and longs for a beautiful librarian (Emily Young), who has eyes for a hunky Ukrainian janitor."
For his thesis project at NYU, Matheny wrote, directed and starred in the Academy Award-winning film, God of Love
God of Love (film)
God of Love is an American live action short film. The film's run time is approximately 18 minutes. It was written and directed by Luke Matheny, and produced by Gigi Dement, Ryan Silbert, and Stefanie Walmsley...
. The film is a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow (portrayed by Matheny) "who finds his prayers are answered – literally – when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts." The catch is that the woman he loves, a drummer in his band, is in love with Ray's best friend, the guitarist in the band. Matheny funded "God of Love" with a combination of student loans, his savings and some production grants, and shot the film in 10 days. Matheny described the bohemian feel he sought to establish for the film as follows:
"I'm a huge jazz fan, and I've always loved jazz photography from the 1950s and ’60s. I knew that the film would open in a kind of bohemian-ish jazz setting, so I thought that this kind of black-and-white visual treatment would give the movie an overall cool, romantic, nostalgic quality. And, of course, my cinematographer Bobby Webster was a key player in helping me bring that idea to life. We looked at lots of films that featured jazz scenes: 'I Want to Live!I Want to Live!I Want to Live! is a 1958 film noir produced by Walter Wanger and directed by Robert Wise which tells the heavily fictionalized story of a woman, Barbara Graham, convicted of murder and facing execution. It stars Susan Hayward as Graham, and also features Simon Oakland, Stafford Repp, and Theodore...
' and 'Paris BluesParis BluesParis Blues is an American feature film filmed on location in Paris, starring Sidney Poitier as expatriate jazz musician Eddie Cook, and Paul Newman as trombone-playing Ram Bowen. The two men romance two vacationing American tourists, Connie Lampson and Lillian Corning respectively...
' were two visual touchstones, in particular. The French New WaveFrench New WaveThe New Wave was a blanket term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s, influenced by Italian Neorealism and classical Hollywood cinema. Although never a formally organized movement, the New Wave filmmakers were linked by their self-conscious rejection of...
was an aesthetic influence, as well, in some of the film's montage scenes."
Academy Award
On February 27, 2011, Matheny won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short FilmAcademy Award for Best Live Action Short Film
This name for the Academy Award for Live Action Short Film was introduced in 1974. For the three preceding years it was known as "Short Subjects, Live Action Films." The term "Short Subjects, Live Action Subjects" was used from 1957 until 1970. From 1936 until 1956 there were two separate...
for "God of Love." The film had previously been rejected by Sundance and Slamdance. In a pre-Oscars interview, Matheny noted, "The Oscar nomination means a ton to me. I've been kind of a psycho Oscar fan my whole life and even, at one point, memorized every Best Picture winner -- which is still a pretty good party trick -- so to actually get a nomination is an amazing event in my life."
Matheny's acceptance speech was considered one of the highlights of the Academy Awards telecast. Descriptions of Matheny's appearance at the award ceremony ranged from the merely descriptive ("mop-haired," "bushy-haired,") to the critical ("somewhat shaggy-looking," "Brillo-headed," and "a vast black bouffant that makes him look like an untidy microphone.") and even laudatory ("follicularly fecund," the "God of Hair"). TV Guide
TV Guide
TV Guide is a weekly American magazine with listings of TV shows.In addition to TV listings, the publication features television-related news, celebrity interviews, gossip and film reviews and crossword puzzles...
rated him as the "Worst Groomed" nominee. At the start of his acceptance speech, Matheny, joked, "I should've gotten a haircut." He went on to thank his mother, who provided craft services on the film, the "great state of Delaware," and "the love of my life," the Russian-born composer, Sasha Gordon, who scored the film. The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
reported it was "safe to say he was out of his comfort zone during the star-studded event," and noted that Matheny admitted he was "standing behind Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey, Jr. is an American actor. Downey made his screen debut in 1970 at the age of five when he appeared in his father's film Pound, and has worked consistently in film and television ever since. During the 1980s he had roles in a series of coming of age films associated with the...
, trying to get on TV." The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune is the largest-circulated daily newspaper in the U.S. city of Salt Lake City. It is distributed by Newspaper Agency Corporation, which also distributes the Deseret News. The Tribune — or "Trib," as it is locally known — is currently owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group....
called him "a contender for the best acceptance speech." The Calgary Herald
Calgary Herald
The Calgary Herald is a daily newspaper published in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta.- History :The paper was first published on August 31, 1883 by Andrew Armour and Thomas Braden as The Calgary Herald, Mining and Ranche Advocate and General Advertiser. It started as a weekly paper with only...
reported, "We didn't know who Luke Matheny was before he won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short for God of Love, but we fell in love with him the moment the mop-haired director opened his mouth ... The young filmmaker's enthusiasm was infectious, and even the Hollywood elite applauded when Matheny thanked his mother ..."