Shana Feste (born August 28, 1975) is an American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. She has directed and written '' The Greatest'', ''

Country Strong ''Country Strong'' is a 2010 American drama film starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Garrett Hedlund, and Leighton Meester. The film, about an emotionally unstable country music star who attempts to resurrect her career, was directed and written ...

'', '' Endless Love'', '' Boundaries'', ''

Run Sweetheart Run ''Run Sweetheart Run'' is a 2020 American supernatural horror film directed by Shana Feste from a screenplay by Feste, Keith Josef Adkins and Kellee Terrell. The film stars Ella Balinska, Pilou Asbæk, Dayo Okeniyi, Betsy Brandt, Ava Grey, La ...

'', and also has writing credits for ''

You're Not You ''You're Not You'' is a 2014 American drama film directed by George C. Wolfe and written by Shana Feste and Jordan Roberts, based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Michelle Wildgen. The film stars Hilary Swank, Emmy Rossum and Josh Duhamel. ...

''. She also teaches at the

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

Early life

Feste was born and raised in

Palos Verdes The Palos Verdes Peninsula (''Palos Verdes'', Spanish for "Green Sticks") is a landform and a geographic sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the S ...

, California. She has a sister. Feste attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. When her parents divorced, she spent summers at her father's in Texas. She earned a master's degree in Creative Writing and Screenwriting at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

and then studied Producing at the

, from where she graduated in 2003. She worked as a nanny, waited tables and tutored to pay for her tuition. Following her graduation, she worked as an assistant at the

Creative Artists Agency Creative Artists Agency LLC (CAA) is an American talent and sports agency based in Los Angeles, California. It is regarded as an influential company in the talent agency business and manages numerous clients. In March 2016, CAA had 1,800 emplo ...

. She is married to producer Brian Kavanaugh-Jones.

Career

Feste's

directorial debut This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...

was '' The Greatest'', which was screened at the 2009

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in the US dramatic competition section. The film is based on Feste's father who lost a son before she was born. It starred

Pierce Brosnan Pierce Brendan Brosnan (; born 16 May 1953) is an Irish actor and film producer. He is best known as the fifth actor to play secret agent James Bond in the Bond film series, starring in four films from 1995 to 2002 (''GoldenEye'', ''Tomorrow ...

and

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

as parents dealing with the death of their son. ''The Greatest'' earned a

Humanitas Prize The Humanitas Prize is an award for film and television writing, and is given to writers whose work explores the human condition in a nuanced and meaningful way. It began in 1974 with Father Ellwood "Bud" Kieser—also the founder of Paulist P ...

nomination. In 2009, she wrote the script for music drama ''

'', which she directed and was released in 2011. It was produced by

Tobey Maguire Tobias Vincent Maguire (born June 27, 1975) is an American actor and film producer. He is best known for playing Peter Parker (Sam Raimi film series), the title character from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man in film#Sam Raimi films, ''Spider-Man'' tril ...

, whom Feste came to know while she was a nanny, caring for his daughter. The film focused on recovering alcoholic country singer Kellie Canter played by

Gwyneth Paltrow Gwyneth Kate Paltrow (; born ) is an American actress and businesswoman. She is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Paltrow gained notice for her early work in films ...

. The song "Coming Home" was nominated for an

Academy Award for Best Original Song The Academy Award for Best Original Song is one of the awards given annually to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is presented to the ''songwriters'' who have composed th ...

, but lost to

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

's "We Belong Together" from ''

Toy Story 3 ''Toy Story 3'' is a 2010 American computer-animated comedy-drama film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the third installment in the ''Toy Story'' series and the sequel to ''Toy Story 2'' (1999). It was d ...

''. Also in 2009, Feste was hired to write a screenplay based on the novel

by Michelle Wildgen. Filming took place in December 2012.

The film The Film is a 2005 Indian thriller film directed by Junaid Memon also produced along with Amitabh Bhattacharya. The film stars Mahima Chaudhry, Khalid Siddiqui, Ananya Khare, Chahat Khanna, Ravi Gossain, Vaibhav Jhalani and Vivek Madan in lea ...

was set for release in 2013. In May 2011, Feste was announced to direct an adaptation of Carolyn Turgeon's novel ''Mermaid: A Twist on the Classic Tale''. The project is still in development. She directed the romance film '' Endless Love'', a remake of the 1981 film. The film was released in February 2014. Feste next directed '' Boundaries'' starring

Vera Farmiga Vera Ann Farmiga ( ; born August 6, 1973) is an American actress who is best known for portraying paranormal investigator Lorraine Warren in the Conjuring Universe films '' The Conjuring'' (2013), '' The Conjuring 2'' (2016), '' Annabelle Co ...

and

Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...

for

Stage 6 Films Stage 6 Films, Inc. is an American film production label of Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions that acquires and produces feature films that are low budget and that are being released straight-to-DVD, on demand, or through streaming services. ...

, to be released on June 22, 2018. Feste wrote and directed the horror film ''

'', which premiered in January 2020 at the

. It was set to show at additional festivals and theatrically, but the COVID-19 pandemic stopped further release, at which point Amazon picked up streaming distribution. During the pandemic, Feste created, wrote, and directed the podcast ''

Dirty Diana "Dirty Diana" is a song by American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson. It is the ninth track on Jackson's seventh studio album, '' Bad'' (1987). The song was released by Epic Records on April 18, 1988, as the fifth single from the album. It pre ...

'' over

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

. The podcast was picked up by Amazon for a streaming series adaptation with Feste returning to direct and co-write with Jen Besser again. The pair also signed a deal to adapt the story into a trilogy of novels.

Filmography

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Feste, Shana 1976 births American women film directors Screenwriters from California People from Palos Verdes, California American women screenwriters Writers from Los Angeles University of California, Los Angeles alumni Moody College of Communication alumni Living people Film directors from Los Angeles 21st-century American women