Monday, February 7, 2011

2011 NOMINATED SHORT: God of Love

In the lead up to the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th, we are taking a closer look at this year's nominees. Today, one of this year's Best Live Action Short Film contenders, God of Love.

Best Live Action Short Film nominee, God of Love
GOD OF LOVE USA/18 MIN

Director/Writer: Luke Matheny
Producers: Gigi Demant, Ryan Silbert, Stefanie Walmsley 

Cast: Luke Matheny, Marian Brock, Christopher Hirsh, Emily Young, Miguel Rosales

Lounge-singing darts champion Raymond Goodfellow finds his prayers are answered -- literally -- when he receives a mysterious package of passion-inducing darts. The catch is that the one woman he loves -- Kelly, a drummer in his band -- is already in love with Ray's best friend Fozzie, the guitarist in the band. But when Ray uses the darts in a loony scheme to resolve this strange romantic triangle, he learns a surprising lesson about unrequited love and discovers his own place in the universe. Romance is in the air in this bohemian charmer.

Luke Matheny is a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based director, writer, actor and professor.

His short film God of Love – a comedy about a lounge-singing darts champion who receives a package of love-inducing darts – was winner of the Student Academy Award; special jury recognition at Aspen ShortsFest; as well as first prize and the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Film Festival. The film has screened and won awards at dozens of festivals around the world. God of Love was Matheny’s thesis at NYU’s graduate film program.

Matheny has also co-written a feature-length coming-of-age comedy, A Birder’s Guide to Everything, with Sundance-award-winning director Rob Meyer. The project is currently in pre-production at Crossroads Films in New York.

His previous short film Earano -- a loose, comic retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac tale – won  the King Award for Screenwriting at the NYU First Run Festival, an honorable mention for the Fujifilm Audience Impact Award at the Angelus Student Film Festival, and Best Student Short at the Dam Short Film Festival in Boulder City, Nevada.

Earano was also called "charming and hilarious [and] quite romantic" by New York Magazine's website.

Matheny grew up in Wilmington, Delaware. He has a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's prestigious Medill School of Journalism and has worked as a reporter and copy editor in a variety of newspapers, magazines and web sites. He has also worked as a synopsis writer for Netflix, a story editor for the MTV series MADE, and as a filmmaking teacher at the School of Cinema and Performing Arts (SOCAPA) in Brooklyn.

He is currently writing a feature comedy script called Ron Quixote. He enjoys jazz, Scrabble and cleaning his desk. 

View an exclusive clip from God of Love below.