Visiting Alum Filmmaker Mathew Gentile

This week we are delighted to welcome Conn Film Studies alum, Matthew Gentile (class of 2012), who attended AFI and just completed a feature film called American Murderer that is distributed by Universal and has met with incredible success. We'll be screening his film at 1:00 on Friday Mar 31 in the Production Studio followed at 3:15 by a Filmmaking Master Class taught by Matthew on how to shoot an action scene on a budget. This is an incredible opportunity to learn from a recent alum about grad school and the industry. We hope to see you there!

Matthew Gentile (Connecticut College class of 2012) is an award-winning filmmaker. His narrative feature debut, AMERICAN MURDERER, is a critically acclaimed true-crime thriller starring Emmy-nominee Tom Pelphrey, Ryan Phillippe, Idina Menzel, Oscar nominee Jacki Weaver, Shantel VanSanten, Moises Arias, Paul Schneider, and Kevin Corrigan.

The film was acquired for distribution by Lionsgate/Saban Films (for US/Canada) & Universal Pictures (for International). After its world premiere at the prestigious Taormina Film Fest in Sicily and racking up awards at film festivals such as San Diego Film Festival (where it won the Artistic Director Award), Newport Beach, Boston, and Fayetteville — it opened exclusively in theaters in the Fall of 2022. Upon its digital release, AMERICAN MURDERER topped streaming charts in over 25 countries including Italy, Brazil, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. 

A graduate of the prestigious directing program at the AFI Conservatory, Matthew’s thesis film FRONTMAN won the Student Emmy for Best Directing and his second thesis LAWMAN played over 100 festivals worldwide and won the Dolby + Vizio Vision Award at AFI Fest. He is currently developing MULTIPLE projects in the crime, action, thriller, and western genres.