Matt Chessé

Matthew Chessé (born October 27, 1965) is an American film editor, producer, and director who is mainly associated with Independent films. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Finding Neverland (2004). Chessé has edited most of the films directed by Marc Forster.

Matt Chessé
Born	(1965-10-27) October 27, 1965 (age 59) San Francisco, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film editor
Years active	1992–present
Spouse	Gillian Harwood Chesse
Children	Clover Chessé and Coco Chessé

Early life

Chessé was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area, and received a bachelor's degree in English literature from San Francisco State University. He attended Ygnacio Valley High School in the SF/EastBay city of Concord graduating with the Class of 1984.

Career

After college he was invited to relocate to Los Angeles to assist Peter Kagan, a director of commercials, at Stiefel and Co.. He next worked as an assistant to Angus Wall, an editor at the commercial editorial shop Rock, Paper, Scissors. Chessé became an editor under the tutelage of David Lee and Lauren Zuckerman.^[1] His first project with Marc Forster was on the film Everything Put Together (2000), which led to their collaboration on the very successful film Monster's Ball (2001).

Awards

Chessé has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.^[2]

He has been nominated, for an Oscar in 2005: Best Achievement in Editing for Finding Neverland (2004), an Eddie in 2005: Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic for Finding Neverland (2004), and a Satellite Award in 2008: Best Film Editing for Quantum of Solace (2008) which he shared with: Richard Pearson)^[3]

Personal life

Chessé currently lives in Los Angeles, California with his wife, two children, Clover and Coco, and one dog named Shortbread.

Editing credits

Matthew Chessé began his career as an editor. His editing credits include:

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes
2000	Everything Put Together	Marc Forster	First collaboration with Marc Forster
2001	Monster's Ball		Second collaboration with Marc Forster
2004	Finding Neverland		Third collaboration with Marc Forster
2005	Ellie Parker	Scott Coffey
	Stay	Marc Forster	Fourth collaboration with Marc Forster
2006	Stranger than Fiction		Fifth collaboration with Marc Forster
2007	The Kite Runner		Sixth collaboration with Marc Forster
2008	Quantum of Solace		Seventh collaboration with Marc Forster
2011	Warrior	Gavin O'Connor
	Machine Gun Preacher	Marc Forster	Eighth collaboration with Marc Forster
2013	World War Z		Ninth collaboration with Marc Forster
2014	Fort Bliss	Claudia Myers
	The Best of Me	Michael Hoffman
2016	Money Monster	Jodie Foster
2018	Paris Song	Jeff Vespa
	Christopher Robin	Marc Forster	Tenth collaboration with Marc Forster
2021	Music	Sia
	Sweet Girl	Brian Andrew Mendoza
2022	A Man Called Otto	Marc Forster	Eleventh collaboration with Marc Forster
2024	White Bird		Twelfth collaboration with Marc Forster

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role
1998	Bongwater	Richard Sears	Assistant editor
2015	The Gift	Joel Edgerton	Additional editor

Producer

Year	Film	Director	Credit
2005	Ellie Parker	Scott Coffey	Co-producer
2014	Fort Bliss	Claudia Myers	Executive producer

Production manager

Year	Film	Director	Role
1998	Bongwater	Richard Sears	Post-production supervisor

Second unit director or assistant director

Year	Film	Director	Role
1997	Loved	Erin Dignam	Second second assistant director

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role
2007	Harvest Moon	Brent Nowak	Thanks
2011	Inseparable	Dayyan Eng	Special thanks
2018	Stuck	Jillian Armenante	Very special thanks

TV series

Editor

Year	Title	Notes
2014	Tyrant	1 episode
2024	True Detective	2 episodes

Editorial department

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2024	True Detective	Editor	1 episode

Additional crew

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2016	No Sleep TV3	Production assistant	1 episode