Deanne Foley

Deanne Catherine Foley is a Canadian director, writer and producer. She has also worked in the television industry, directing episodes for a variety of series. She is best known for her films An Audience of Chairs, Relative Happiness and Beat Down, which received a number of awards, as well as exposure at a number of higher profile film festivals. During her university years, she became interested in becoming a filmmaker after attending the St. John's International Women's Film Festival.

She is the mother of two children and currently lives in St. John's, Newfoundland. Also in the early 2000s, Foley worked as a field producer and video journalist for two CBC news series: ZeD and Street Cents, where she specialized in reports on Newfoundland.

Feature films

In 2012, Foley's first feature film, Beat Down, was released. She directed and co-wrote the film. The film is a comedy about a teenager named Fran (played by Marthe Bernard) who hopes to become a professional wrestler like her parents, despite her father's disapproval. The film garnered positive reviews and was nominated for three Canadian Comedy Awards, including one for Foley's directing. It was also named "Best of the Fest" at the Cinequest Film Festival in San Jose, California, where it made its debut.

Her second feature film, Relative Happiness, was a Nova Scotia-Newfoundland co-production. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Cape Breton writer Lesley Crewe and stars Melissa Bergland, Aaron Poole and Susan Kent. Foley wrote the screenplay along with Iain MacLeod, Sherry White and Crewe. They opted to make the film more comedic than the novel in order for it to become a romantic comedy. The film's plot centres around Lexie (played by Bergland), a bed and breakfast owner who sets out to find love. Foley shot the film in Halifax over 16 days in Fall 2013. It had a budget of $1.25 million and was funded by Telefilm Canada.

Television

Foley also has experience with directing television series. In 2014, she directed two episodes of the CBC television series Republic of Doyle.

Awards and honours

Foley is a member of the Directors Guild of Canada, as well as the Writers Guild of Canada, WIFT (Women in Film and Television)-Atlantic and NIFCO (Newfoundland Independent Film Makers Co-Op Ltd). She won the award for Best Debut Feature at the Female Eye Film Festival for her work on the film Beat Down. In 2015, she was awarded Artist of the Year at the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Awards. She won the 2020 Wave Award from WIFT-Atlantic.

Filmography

Films

Television