Director | Producer | Writer
Kristen McGary’s feature film directorial debut, The Adventures of Ociee Nash, starring Skyler Day, Keith Carradine, Mare Winningham and Lucas Till, was distributed by 20th Century Fox for Home Video, and by HBO Central Europe. Recently it has been re-released by BMG (Bridgestone Media Group) appearing on such platforms as Amazon Prime and YouTube TV.
The script for The Adventures of Ociee Nash won the Southeastern Mediamakers Award from the Atlanta Film Society. The completed feature of Ociee won an iParenting Media Award and was awarded five doves, the highest honor, by the Dove Foundation. Ociee was also named in the top twenty sales of family feature films for home video rental in Video Business Magazine (January 2006).
McGary’s most recent independent short as director, entitled Rain, which she directed and photographed, was awarded a 2016 Accolade Award for Excellence: Women Filmmakers, and also was selected along with thirty international films to be presented worldwide in the Women in Film International Shortcase (2016). Rain was also the official selection for a program sponsored by Actor’s Express theater (Atlanta) that offers independent and emerging artists space and opportunity to present their work for an audience with the support of a professional theatre. Rain won the Audience Award at Women in Film and Television Atlanta’s 2014 Showcase and was featured in both the Golden Door International Festival (New Jersey) and the Macon Film Festival.
McGary produced, directed and shot The Intruder Within, a Public Service Announcement for the Georgia Coalition Against Domestic Violence. With Intruder, Kristen McGary was nominated for a 2008 Southeastern Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Directing: Short Form. The Intruder Within also won a 2006 CINE Golden Eagle Award for its category. Kristen McGary is one of a handful of directors also shooting their own work.
Kristen McGary was listed among the top women filmmakers in the Southeast, USA, Southern Screen Report, and was featured in Kathy Janich’s article for In Town Magazine on “People to Watch”. She is in the Directors Guild of America, Directors Category. Sister team Amy McGary and Kristen McGary were awarded “Best Girl Power in Film” in Atlanta’s Creative Loafing, 2004. Kristen McGary is the subject of Naomi Glauberman’s June 2001 article “Dish: My Dinner With” for the New Times (LA).
Kristen most recently completed (2021) writing her first magical realism novel in a Young Adult trilogy. Her short screenplay Wed was a semi-finalist in the Atlanta Film Festival 2019. She has also written a short screenplay entitled sensu eminenti, a feature adaptation of Hamlet set in the floods of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and a female detective romp called Poker Face, as well as worked as script doctor to a multitude of screenplays in order to serve as a champion for other writers. Writing credits with Amy McGary include the pilot series and bible for East Point, a feature entitled Flannery about the iconic southern author Flannery O’Connor and a feature screen adaptation and pilot series of The Adventures of Ociee Nash based on the Milam McGraw Propst novel, A Flower Blooms on Charlotte Street.
Credits in the Art Department include Bruce Beresford’s Driving Miss Daisy, and Ed Zwick’s Glory, both nominated for Academy Awards for Art Direction. Credits also include scenic artist/on-set/dresser work on James Cameron’s Terminator.
In 1998, Tom Brown interviewed Kristen McGary on TNT’s show Rough Cut for spearheading a campaign to include “Film” as a category in the Pulitzer Prizes. Roger Ebert, Robert Altman, and Kenneth Branagh were also featured speakers in this segment. McGary is also mentioned in an October 1997 article by Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun Times for her efforts in this area. Kristen McGary is a Past President of Women in Film and Television, Atlanta (2007). McGary presided on the Board of Directors of WIFTA (2005/2006). McGary interviewed internationally recognized film director James Ivory of Merchant Ivory Productions called “Conversations with: James Ivory”, and also interviewed notable film critic Eleanor Ringel Gillespie as part of WIFTA programs.
McGary graduated summa cum laude with a Master of Fine Arts degree in film directing from the University of Georgia, and received her ABJ in Radio, TV and Film from the same. She is a current member in the Directing category of the DGA, the Directors Guild of America, IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, an honorary member of Women in Film Atlanta and Film Fatales, Atlanta.