Matthew Leutwyler

After studying film at The San Francisco Art Institute, Matthew Leutwyler wrote and directed the cult-comedy/horror/musical Dead and Breakfast (SXSW 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. Since then he has produced or exec produced The Oh In Ohio starring Parker Posey and Paul Rudd; Lower Learning with Eva Longoria, Jason Biggs, and Rob Corddry; Against The Current with Joseph Fiennes, and Justin Kirk (Sundance 2009); the Matthew Broderick and Sanaa Lathan drama Wonderful World (Tribeca 2010); and Every Day, starring Helen Hunt, and Liev Schreiber (Tribeca 2011). In the past few years, Leutwyler directed the adaptation of the acclaimed novel The River Why (Mill Valley 2010) starring William Hurt, Zach Gilford, and Amber Heard. He also exec produced Super (Toronto 2012) starring Rainn Wilson and Ellen Page; the 3D horror comedy Hellbenders and the comedy-drama The Girl Most Likely starring Kristen Wiig and Annette Benning (Toronto 2011). Additionally, he wrote & directed the ensemble drama Answers To Nothing starring Dane Cook, Barbara Hershey, and Julie Benz. Leutwyler stepped into the distribution side of the industry when he co-founded the theatrical distributor The Film Arcade in 2012. For two years, he oversaw the marketing of films including Sundance winner and Independent Spirit Award nominee Afternoon Delight starring Kathryn Hahn and Jane Lynch, as well as other Sundance entries The Other Dream Team, and A.C.O.D. with Amy Poehler, Adam Scott, and Jessica Alba. Matthew departed the company in 2014 to concentrate his efforts back on production and later that year produced the award winning food documentary Spinning Plates. November 2015 saw the release of Leutwyler's directorial effort, the sci-fi drama Uncanny with Mark Webber, Lucy Griffiths, and Rainn Wilson. The award winning film has been critically praised with Sight & Sound Magazine calling the film "confident, meticulously crafted, and performed with perfect nuance." And Ain't-It-Cool-News "A rare breed of thoughtful, independent science fiction." In October 2017, he completed post production on the coming-of-age film Good After Bad starring Billy Burke, Maddie Hasson, and Melora Walters. Leutwyler produced the film alongside Morgan Spurlock's company Warrior Poets. The following year he Executive produced and co-created a reality-TV pilot for The Africa Channel entitled The Bank. Best described as Shark Tank for micro-loans, it was directed by Rebecca Henning (creator of Bravo's hit series Below Deck). Matthew spent the final five months of 2019 in Mumbai directing and show running the 8 episode action-drama series State of Siege:26/11. The series tells the true life events surrounding the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks and is due out later this year. Leutwyler has most recently began developing the comedy series Volunteers. The series is based on a pilot he directed and co-created that was shot on location in Rwanda. The scathing takedown of "white savior complex" stars Erik Palladino and Vincent Ventresca as two privileged actors who travel to the East African country to "help the black kids." Matthew has also directed and produced spots for Chevy Volt and Coke Zero and a music video for Egyptian (Imagine Dragons singer Dan Reynolds's side project). Outside of his career as a filmmaker, Matthew founded and oversees the non-profit We Are Limitless, providing Rwandan and Congolese orphans with high-quality boarding school educations in addition to healthcare and other basic needs. He also spent 5 months building a restaurant, named after his mother "Lavana", in the capital city of Kigali where he lives part time. Lavana opened Jan 19, 2019.