Matthew Cichella

Matthew Cichella, owner and CEO of Never Submit Entertainment, is an award-winning director, producer and screenwriter. Growing up in Rockford, Illinois, he knew at a young age he was destined to be a part of the motion picture business. He directed his first short film at the young age of nine years old. That short film was a remake of the 1991 Kevin Costner film, "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves." Matthew would go on to make several short films with friends over the years that followed, but it was in 2010, that he made his first, "professional" short film. That film, "Innocent Looks", premiered at the On The Waterfront film festival to a standing ovation. Flying high on the success of "Innocent Looks", Matthew quickly went back to work on another short film, this one entitled "Famous." Famous would go on to be available on demand on the Amazon Prime Video streaming outlet. He quickly followed that short up with a feature length film, "Poetic" in 2012. Though more experimental, and not truly a professional film, "Poetic" premiered in Rockford, IL to a sold out crowd of over four hundred people at Rockford's Tebala Shrine event center. In early 2013, Matthew stepped away from filmmaking to marry his high school sweetheart and to help her raise her children. He would spend many years as a family man, but in March of 2019 he would get back into filmmaking, this time with a film he wrote for his wife, based on his own true story, "Without Grace". In September 2020, Matthew was finally able to bring life full circle and held the world premiere, red-carpet screening at AMC 14 in Rockford, of his first professional feature film, "Without Grace." The film is dedicated to his wife & finally brings the filmmaking dream and the honor of being a family man together as one cohesive unit.. It was a dream come true for Matthew and one he is thankful for to this day.