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29 Jan – 8 Feb 2026

Matthew Porterfield

Matt PORTERFIELD (1977, USA) studied at the Tisch School of the Arts, New York University. Porterfield has written and directed four feature films – Hamilton (2006), Putty Hill (2011), I Used to Be Darker (2013) and Sollers Point (2018) – all set in his native city of Baltimore. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art and the Harvard Film Archive, and has screened at the Whitney Biennial, the Walker Arts Center, Centre Pompidou, Cinematheque Française, and film festivals such as Sundance, the Berlinale, San Sebastián, Rotterdam, BAFICI and SXSW. In the summer of 2014, he wrote and directed his first narrative short, Take What You Can Carry, with a grant from the Harvard Film Study Center. It premiered in the Shorts Competition at the Berlinale in 2015 and screened at Lincoln Center’s second annual Art of the Real series. The following year, he co-produced and co-wrote Gaston Solnicki’s first fiction feature, Kékszakállú, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His most recent short, Cuatro paredes, his first Spanish-language film starring Bárbara López, was released by MUBI in 2021. He is currently developing his next feature – Solo tengo sed (2023) with producer Paulina Valencia – his second Spanish-language film to be entirely produced in México. As a producer, Matt has participated in IFP’s No Borders, Cinemart, FIDLab, the Berlin Coproduction Market and the Venice Production Bridge. Matt is a Creative Capital grantee, the recipient of a Wexner Center Artists Residency, and a Guggenheim Fellow. He teaches screenwriting, critical theory and film production at Johns Hopkins University. Currently, he is based in Mexico City.

Filmography

Hamilton (2006), Putty Hill (2010), I Used to Be Darker (2013), Take What You Can Carry (2015, short), Sollers Point (2017), Claro Paredes (2020, short)

More info: Wikipedia, Matt Porterfield

Matthew Porterfield at IFFR

  • Solo tengo sed

    When one of their friends goes missing, a group of Tijuana teenagers search for answers in the face of this tragedy.

  • Sollers Point

    Social-realist drama about an ex-con trying to make a fresh start in Baltimore. He tries to go straight but unemployment, segregation, poverty