Matthew Stalletti is an award-winning Canadian writer, director, producer, and founder of Mafftech Productions. He is best known for The Wicked: Reborn (2024), an independent Western thriller that earned 10 international awards, including Best Director for Stalletti and Best Actor for its lead performer at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival.
The film screened internationally, including at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, and demonstrated Stalletti’s ability to deliver ambitious, cinematic storytelling on an independent budget.
With hands-on experience in writing, directing, producing, cinematography, and post-production, Stalletti is currently developing a slate of feature film and television projects through Mafftech Productions, with a focus on character-driven genre storytelling and Canadian filmmaking.
We met with Matthew at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September. Here is our conversation with Matthew Stalletti.
HNMAG: Did you grow up around Toronto?
Matthew Stalletti: Yeah, I’m from Vaughan. I work a lot in Toronto. I’m very familiar with the city.
HNMAG: How did you become interested in Film & Television?
Matthew Stalletti: As a kid I was very into all forms of storytelling. I had a camcorder and made a lot of home videos. I also wrote comic books and came up with the characters. Going into high school, I had a stronger desire to work in video games than film. It was still from a writing perspective. At the beginning of high school, I started making short films, and people liked them, and then I made more and more. I moved in that direction because it was something you could physically do with your hands, around other people instead of mainly working on a computer. It just made sense to me at that point.
After High school, I’ve just been making more movies ever since.
HNMAG: Did you have to do everything on your own with your early short films?
Matthew Stalletti: I wore every hat one person could wear. I would write and direct and even act in the films sometimes. Now you can learn everything you want online. I would edit the films and learn visual effects. I got pretty good at it. In terms of financing, it was always self-funded until more recent years.
HNMAG: What was the first movie that you were able to raise funds for?
Matthew Stalletti: My next feature, which is currently in development, is the first project where we’re actively pursuing outside financing. Up until this point, I’ve mostly self-financed my films.
HNMAG: The Wicked and Grace- those were still self-funded?
Matthew Stalletti: Yeah.
HNMAG: Those are features?
Matthew Stalletti: The Wicked: Reborn is a feature. It’s about an hour. I saved up money for years to make that movie. I’m most proud of the production value we were able to pull off. We squeezed out so much from a very small budget. We had horseback riding, gunfights…
It reflects well considering how small and independent of a film it is.
HNMAG: It’s a true Western.
Matthew Stalletti: Yeah. Exactly, and it was shot in Ontario, around Ajax. It came together really nicely. You can’t tell it was filmed near Toronto.
HNMAG: Do you see more possibilities for movies set in Canada?
Matthew Stalletti: I think there will be more and more productions that will be showcasing Canadian cities and the Canadian wilderness. There are a lot of incentives for international co-productions to come to Canada and shoot. I’m sure we’ll see more films that showcase Toronto itself. I think we’re seeing more opportunities to tell distinctly Canadian stories and showcase Canadian locations on screen.
HNMAG: Where can people see The Wicked?
Matthew Stalletti: The Wicked: Reborn is on YouTube. I decided to put it online for free to maximize how many people had access to watching it.
HNMAG: Do you think you’ll work with union actors in the future?
Matthew Stalletti: With the projects I have on my current slate, they’re mostly union. The purpose of The Wicked was to be a calling card, so everything was done non union. We worked with a lot of great up and coming actors, and friends who helped with some favours. It had a great festival run too.
HNMAG: Were any festivals expensive to enter and attend?
Matthew Stalletti: The first festival it played at was the Golden Film Festival in Los Angeles. It was screened at the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.
HNMAG: Oh, that’s amazing! That’s a great theatre.
Matthew Stalletti: We actually flew out for that for three days. That was a really cool experience. It was my first time in California. I won Best Director at the Toronto Nollywood Festival, and our lead actor won Best Actor there as well. In total, we won ten awards.
HNMAG: Congratulations.
Matthew Stalletti: We were originally planning to shoot it after COVID lockdowns, but we had to push it back indefinitely. I almost thought we would never get it done. I came up with a new version in 2022, and we shot it by the end of 2023. It was stressful and fast since we wanted to wrap before Winter set in.
Attending big Festivals like TIFF isn’t all about the screenings but the networking opportunities. There are a lot of parties, and invitations can be limited and often last-minute. These are wonderful opportunities to meet some important and creative people such as Matthew Stalletti. We are sure we’ll have another article soon once his next film is ready. We can’t wait to see it and find out more.