Curtis Matzke is an Emmy-nominated director, screenwriter, and producer based in Chicago, IL. As the founder of Unfurnished Films LLC, Curtis has contributed to numerous short films, documentaries, and micro-budget features. His work has been recognized at dozens of film festivals, including Athens International, Cinequest, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, and Chicago International. He explores a variety of genres and themes that tackle loss, regret, the passage of time, and much more. His latest short film, SINK, is an experimental horror film shot during the COVID-19 lockdown that premiered at the Oscar-qualifying Chicago International Film Festival in October 2021 and has screened at a dozen festivals since. Curtis recently joined a select group of international filmmakers in the Canary Islands, where they were mentored by legendary director Werner Herzog on new short projects. These films (RECUPERACIÓN DE LOS CAÍDOS and LA ISLA DE ALFREDO) are still screening at numerous film festivals through 2023, including the Oscar-qualifying Cinequest Film Festival. Curtis wrote an extensive essay about the experience that was published by Filmmaker Magazine.
In 2019, Curtis directed a short documentary celebrating Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, which included interviews with filmmakers Alex Ross Perry, Joe Swanberg, and Michael Shannon, and earned him regional Emmy nominations for Outstanding Off-Camera Directing and Historical Documentary. His short horror film SPLINTER was released by ALTER, earning more than 250K online views in one week. In 2018, Curtis was named “Most Diabolical” by the National Academy of Sciences and Austin Film Festival. His full-length documentary (FIRST FEATURE) about an intrepid young filmmaker, is in post-production and fiscally sponsored by Film Independent. He also works as a creative producer and produced two feature films (AN EXQUISITE MEAL, SEXUAL ANIMALS) that were distributed by Gravitas Ventures.
Curtis has had three feature screenplays (SPINE, THE ORCHESTRA, and SEA DOGS) advance to the Second Round of the Austin Film Festival. THE ORCHESTRA screenplay, a horror feature about a young woman haunted at an elite music conservatory, has won several awards including Best Screenplay at the Woods Hole and Anchorage International Film Festivals, and was one of five selected projects in last year’s Chicago International Film Festival Feature Development Lab with director Jennifer Reeder consulting on the project. Slamdance described the script as “an effectively suspenseful and frightening supernatural horror-thriller.” THE ORCHESTRA short film, a proof-of-concept for the feature, screened at more than two-dozen festivals including Nightmares, Cinepocalypse, NewFilmmakers LA, NYC Horror, and more.
Curtis recently completed a writing residency at the Vermont Studio Center and received an honorable mention in the Stowe Story Labs’ Final Draft Fellowship with a sci-fi pilot he wrote during the pandemic. During that lab, he was mentored by writers Melody Cooper and Derek Simonds. The same pilot, TIN CAN, advanced to the second round of the Sundance Episodic Lab. In 2023, he was selected to participate in a two-week writing residency at the Chateau d'Orquevaux in France to begin a new feature screenplay. He recently branched out his writing to include playwriting, personal essays, and short stories and is adapting one of his scripts (SEA DOGS) into a graphic novel. Curtis enjoys various art forms including painting, drawing, and stop-motion and is an avid amateur chef who enjoys making his own pickles and brewing his own beer.
Curtis was recently accepted into the Reykjavík Talent Lab at the Reykjavík International Film Festival in Iceland. He is the recipient of professional development grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2019 Curtis founded The Chicago Cinema Collective, a comprehensive compendium of the Chicago film scene. He serves as a judge for the Academy-qualifying Chicago Children’s International Film Festival, is a reader for the Austin Film Festival, and holds a B.A. in Media Arts and Technology and an M.A. in Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media from Michigan State University with a concentration in Television, Cinema, & Radio, a minor in Film Studies, and a Specialization in Design.
In 2019, Curtis directed a short documentary celebrating Chicago’s Music Box Theatre, which included interviews with filmmakers Alex Ross Perry, Joe Swanberg, and Michael Shannon, and earned him regional Emmy nominations for Outstanding Off-Camera Directing and Historical Documentary. His short horror film SPLINTER was released by ALTER, earning more than 250K online views in one week. In 2018, Curtis was named “Most Diabolical” by the National Academy of Sciences and Austin Film Festival. His full-length documentary (FIRST FEATURE) about an intrepid young filmmaker, is in post-production and fiscally sponsored by Film Independent. He also works as a creative producer and produced two feature films (AN EXQUISITE MEAL, SEXUAL ANIMALS) that were distributed by Gravitas Ventures.
Curtis has had three feature screenplays (SPINE, THE ORCHESTRA, and SEA DOGS) advance to the Second Round of the Austin Film Festival. THE ORCHESTRA screenplay, a horror feature about a young woman haunted at an elite music conservatory, has won several awards including Best Screenplay at the Woods Hole and Anchorage International Film Festivals, and was one of five selected projects in last year’s Chicago International Film Festival Feature Development Lab with director Jennifer Reeder consulting on the project. Slamdance described the script as “an effectively suspenseful and frightening supernatural horror-thriller.” THE ORCHESTRA short film, a proof-of-concept for the feature, screened at more than two-dozen festivals including Nightmares, Cinepocalypse, NewFilmmakers LA, NYC Horror, and more.
Curtis recently completed a writing residency at the Vermont Studio Center and received an honorable mention in the Stowe Story Labs’ Final Draft Fellowship with a sci-fi pilot he wrote during the pandemic. During that lab, he was mentored by writers Melody Cooper and Derek Simonds. The same pilot, TIN CAN, advanced to the second round of the Sundance Episodic Lab. In 2023, he was selected to participate in a two-week writing residency at the Chateau d'Orquevaux in France to begin a new feature screenplay. He recently branched out his writing to include playwriting, personal essays, and short stories and is adapting one of his scripts (SEA DOGS) into a graphic novel. Curtis enjoys various art forms including painting, drawing, and stop-motion and is an avid amateur chef who enjoys making his own pickles and brewing his own beer.
Curtis was recently accepted into the Reykjavík Talent Lab at the Reykjavík International Film Festival in Iceland. He is the recipient of professional development grants from the Illinois Arts Council and the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. In 2019 Curtis founded The Chicago Cinema Collective, a comprehensive compendium of the Chicago film scene. He serves as a judge for the Academy-qualifying Chicago Children’s International Film Festival, is a reader for the Austin Film Festival, and holds a B.A. in Media Arts and Technology and an M.A. in Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media from Michigan State University with a concentration in Television, Cinema, & Radio, a minor in Film Studies, and a Specialization in Design.
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