Marty Elcan

MARTY ELCAN is a Director member of the Directors Guild of America, with extensive production experience in film.

Marty's latest short film LADIES MOST DEJECT, a tale shot on location in Virginia about a teenage girl in Appalachia struggling to protect her younger siblings from a meth-addicted mother, is currently in 36 festivals and counting.  It has won 19 major awards, including Best Short at La Femme Film Festival, Best Short at Show Low Film Festival, Best VA Short and Best Overall film at the PUSH! Film Festival, Best Drama at Southern Shorts and Best Director at Overcome Film Festival.  She also recently directed the short film AS IF… which comedically addresses the issue of gender and racial parity. 

Her feature film directorial debut NEXT OF KIN features Academy Award winner Octavia Spencer, Emmy Nominee Ed Begley, Jr., People’s Choice Award winner Jeremy London, Bess Armstrong, George Newbern, Kate Orsini and Andrew Lockridge.  The film was selected to be part of the DGA Director Finder series.

Other directing credits include an episode of Fox’ BEYOND BELIEF, 2nd units on the feature WALKING ACROSS EGYPT and the CBS pilot DESTINY, a commercial for Universal, an Emmy-nominated documentary about abuse, several music videos, national award-winning PSA’s, and four multi-award-winning short films.  Her short comedy THERE GOES THE GROOM won multiple First Place festival awards and minor awards, and ultimately aired on JLTV.  Her second film THE HIT was an official selection in sixteen film festivals and won five top honors.  HIT AND RUN was one of seven short films made through a DGA/Kodak grant filmmaking project that screened to a full house at the DGA.  CROSSING THE LINE with Anne Ramsay and James Eckhouse was honored at the Filmmakers Alliance’s 10th anniversary Visionfest.  

Though most known for her narrative work, Marty was selected by the DGA to profile the first woman Fire Marshal in Los Angeles for the OUTSTANDING WOMEN IN L.A. CITY GOVERNMENT project, which aired on CityView TV.  Marty also directed and produced the wildly fun award-winning Sign Language DVD series SHUT UP AND SIGN that sells nationally.

Marty attributes much of her directing knowledge to her extensive work as an Assistant Director where she has helped shepherd such high profile works as DRIVING MISS DAISY, STEEL MAGNOLIAS, MYSTIC PIZZA, HILL STREET BLUES, PICKET FENCES, THE GRASS HARP, AMAZING STORIES, ROMY AND MICHELE’S HIGH SCHOOL REUNION, INHERIT THE WIND (George C. Scott & Jack Lemmon), MY FAVORITE MARTIAN, SIX FEET UNDER, GREY’S ANATOMY and the Warner feature NANCY DREW: THE MYSTERY OF THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE.  As an A.D., she was on teams nominated for three Directors Guild Awards.

With an extensive theater background as an actress, an award-winning still photographer's eye, and decades of production experience, Marty directs with vision, technical expertise, calm and humor.

Marty served for four years on the Board of the Alliance of Women Directors, the only film organization dedicated solely to the education, support and advocacy for women directors in the entertainment industry, and was recently asked to join AWD's Emeritus Board.  She is also on the Board of World Singing Day Organization, and mentors several students through the UCLA Mentorship program.  Any spare time is spent acting, shooting still and 3D photographs, and singing with her award-winning 4-part a cappella harmony group.