Delaware’s Oscar winner returns to Wilmington

“Suck it, we’re tied Scorcese!” Joking, Academy Award-winning filmmaker, and Delaware native, Luke Matheny had reporters laughing when asked if he rubs his Oscar win in people’s faces. 

But in all seriousness, Wilmington’s own Matheny was gracious and humble prior to today’s special student screening of his Oscar-winning short, “God of Love,” at his alma mater Concord High School.

The comedic short is about a lounge-singing dart champion caught in a love triangle, whose prayers are answered when he mysteriously receives love-inducing darts. Despite only being 18 minutes long, Matheny managed to mention Wilmington twice in the film. He even gave Delaware a shout out in his Oscar acceptance speech on national television.

“I’ve lived in a lot of places, but this is definitely what I think of as home,” said Matheny.

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The 34-year-old, who graduated from Concord in 1993, received a standing ovation from students, school administrators and state lawmakers, including Gov. Jack Markell, who named Matheny Delaware’s “Ambassador to Hollywood.”

All of the attention and honors aside, the Brooklyn, N.Y.-based filmmaker says now, it’s time to get back to work.

“The only thing you really receive or win in this business is the ability to do more work. So this will open some more doors for me, obviously, right out of the gate for my career and, you know, I’m just hoping to be able to make a living doing this,” said Matheny.

As for his golden statuette, which is surprisingly heavy, Matheny says it’s going south, with mom DiAnn Matheny.

“I don’t want to be in a position to be writing a script looking at this on my desk because it’s gets me too self-conscious and I feel like I will never match it, so mom can take this down to Florida.”

Matheny’s already writing his next feature film, which he plans to direct and also act in. So far, the title is “Ron Quixote,” a movie he says is loosely based on Don Quixote. And no, the filmmaker has no immediate plans to cut his voluminous hair.

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