About Zachary Matz
Zachary Matz is a producer of award-winning feature films, and a versatile filmed entertainment industry executive with more than two decades of producing experience. He is credited as producer with more than a dozen released feature films in current distribution.
Notable films include: the sleeper hit City Island starring Oscar® nominee Andy Garcia, E.L. Doctorow’s Jolene, starring Oscar® nominee Jessica Chastain, and the critically acclaimed Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, starring Oscar® nominee Joan Plowright. More recently, Zachary produced the indie cult time travel film, Time Trap.
Matz has also produced numerous pedestal-earning theatrical independent feature films, notable among them: Drum, winner of the Fespaco (Gold Stallion) Gran Prix, Paranoia 1.0, a Sundance Jury Prize Nominee, and Wildflowers, winner of SXSW Grand Jury Prize.
Born in New York and transplanted to Los Angeles as a teen, Matz attended U.C.S.D., where he graduated with honors, and was a standout on the university's storied soccer team. He began his film career at Showscan®, an end-to-end producer of high-end theatrical quality filmed content & installations for world's fairs (e.g. Vancouver '86, Tsukuba '85), theme parks, and major corporate clients (e.g. Perrier, Chevrolet, etc.).
Founded by acclaimed director & visual effects innovator Douglas Trumbull, the company attracted many superior technical & crafts personnel, many of whom became mentors for Matz in acquiring the fundamentals of the producing process. This began with an emphasis was on production & visual effects, and rapidly expanded to include a facility in exhibition technologies (IMAX®, HD, etc) with a particular focus on the post production process.
This experience segued into him freelance producing, creating content for concerts and live events, commercial and industrial spots, and television. He later held an executive post at New World Pictures in its film and television post production operation. Matz then co-founded Rocket Motion Pictures, which produced ridefilms, virtual experiential content, and other location-based productions for notable corporate clients including Universal Studios, Simex Iwerks Corporation, and Intel.
Matz then turned his attention to the burgeoning space of feature filmmaking, and over the ensuing decade+, produced numerous features in a variety of genre, at a range of budgets, on far-flung locations around the globe.
Matz is the sole owner of FILMSMITH, a California corporation (est. 1996), and registered ltd. company in the U.K. (est. 2005). The company is the lender of his individual producing & consulting services, and is a full service, one stop production services resource for a variety of clientele. It also functions as the holding company for the company's projects in development.
Matz is currently on the faculty of the American Film Conservatory (AFI) in the Producers MFA Program. He is a member of the Producers Guild of America (Features Counsel) and the Directors Guild of America as a UPM. He lives in Santa Monica, and holds dual citizenship in both the U.S. and Ireland.