KATT SHEA

Writer-director Katt Shea has been honored by retrospectives of five of her critically acclaimed films at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, The British Film Institute in London and various festivals throughout Europe. She also won the 1996 Silver Award for screenwriting at The Houston Film Festival.  Katt has been profiled on the front page of The New York Times Arts & Leisure section and in a special issue of US Magazine dedicated to the role of the director in filmmaking.

Critics have compared her to Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone and even Ingmar Bergman. Andrew Sarris says of her, “I see an unusually kinetic talent combined with a flare for complex narrative.  Ms. Shea does little things so well that big meanings flow out of them.” Peter Travers adds,” The emotional resonance, visual sophistication and strong subtext of Shea’s work fuse to create a distinctive style worth monitoring.”  New York Times writer Caryn James credits Shea with starting new genre, about the 1992 screenings of Poison Ivy at the Sundance Film Festival she wrote: “One of the best competition films is Poison Ivy directed by Katt Shea whose previous movies were made for Roger Corman.  Four of these movies will be shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan which says everything about the genre she and Sundance are helping to define.” For Rolling Stone, Travers continues, “...look at Jonathan Demme’s Caged Heat, Martin Scorsese’s Boxcar Bertha. Shea follows in that tradition and does it proud.”

In March of ‘99 Katt completed her first studio film, The Rage, Carrie 2 for MGM/UA. Opening at number 2 at the box office, the film received rave reviews in The L.A. Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, The New York Post, The Village Voice and The Nation.  Kevin Thomas of The Los Angeles Times called her “...a master of genre. Shea’s ability to play various elements against one another gives “The Rage” welcome complexity and tension.”  Stuart Klawans of The Nation raves the Katt Shea’s movies are “...remarkable for their disquieting themes, for their style (bold, fluent and varied)...Over the past dozen years only five or six American women besides Shea have managed to turn out a comparable number of commercial features...Look at he beauty and terror that Katt Shea can achieve and ask whether there’s motivation today for The Rage.”

Katt’s movies seem to set trends within the industry. Poison Ivy, which was a significant video hit and boasts the highest turns per copy in video history, inspired dozens of high profile imitators and the influence of her even her earliest low budget films (i.e. Stripped To Kill) is still felt within the thriller genre.

In 2001 Katt completed her first T.V. movie for CBS, called Sharing The Secret, which won the prestigious Peabody Award. Airing on sweeps week in May, The Hollywood Reporter paid tribute: “Some first rate performances, along with Shea’s fine tuned direction create Sharing The Secret’s intelligent two hours.” Her second TV movie, Nora Roberts’ Sanctuary, the first adaptation of a novel by the largest selling female author in history, aired on CBS during February sweeps of 2001. Variety said, “Director and co-screenwriter Katt Shea hits all the right beats, establishes the characters with depth and even invests the genre piece with some stylish dream sequences.”  Peter Travers sums the whole thing up when he says, “Why settle for a usual walk around the block when Shea offers a wild ride with the top down into unchartered territory?” 

Katt is adapting the novel The Tutor by Peter Abrahams for Bob Chartoff and Mike Medavoy. She is also set to direct.  Also in active development is The List for the Mayhem Project.

Veteran filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola and Sidney Pollack have championed Katt. She is actively involved with the DGA and a member of the Academy.