Meet Shanna Carrick, Film Pittsburgh’s new executive director

Carrick will be at the helm of festivals such as JFilm and ReelAbilities

Film Pittsburgh’s new executive director, Shanna Carrick, doesn’t just like movies. She has a tattoo of Olivia Newton-John in “Xanadu” spinning a laser disc. She’s a paying Cinemark North Hills member who has a go-to order of a Coke Zero and a popcorn, or a whiskey and coke slushie, at its bar. Her LinkedIn profile reads “wants to know your Letterboxd top 4,” which, if you know, you know. (Letterboxd is a popular movie reviewing app.)

So, Carrick is more than a casual movie buff.

But it takes more than a movie buff to run a nonprofit at the executive director level. Carrick also brings a decade of experience in strategic planning and operations.

“When I saw on WESA that [former executive director of Film Pittsburgh] Kathryn Spitz Cohan was leaving, I thought to myself: ‘If I don’t apply for this job, I will regret it for the rest of my life,’” Carrick said. That leap turned out to be a fruitful one, as Carrick began her tenure as executive director this summer after an extensive interview process.

Prior to Film Pittsburgh, Carrick worked for Deeplocal, a creative technology company based in Pittsburgh, but with national reach.

“Working at Deeplocal meant working for a massive, publicly traded company where things like stocks compliance were a concern. Film Pittsburgh is very different,” Carrick said. “I was also overseeing an IT department at Deeplocal, so at Film Pittsburgh I’ve been seeing where we can create efficiencies for a very small staff.” That includes finding nonprofit discounts for software like Slack or Monday.com to make workflow easier for everyone on board.

Carrick also wonders about finding more corporate sponsors for Film Pittsburgh and taking advantage of Pittsburgh’s increasing status as a destination through events like the 2026 NFL Draft. She participated in a study where community members investigated why Pittsburgh has such a high number of arts organizations per capita, but such a low capacity for funding them compared to larger cities.

“There is not a lot of people in the pool for funding — they’re kind of tapped out since they’re funding everything,” Carrick explained. Before both Deeplocal and Film Pittsburgh, Carrick was director of strategic operations at Pittsburgh Arts and Lectures, so she saw firsthand how arts organizations have to navigate the city’s cultural and financial landscape, often as big fish in small ponds.

Carrick sees a potential connection between Arts and Lectures and Film Pittsburgh, as well — when there’s an author in town, why not screen a film adaptation of their work?

“Pittsburgh is a really fantastic place and the landscape can only get stronger. I call it the hope of being ‘the Cannes of Appalachia,’” Carrick said, referencing Pittsburgh’s nickname as “the Paris of Appalachia.” In Carrick’s new position, she’s making uplifting the city of Pittsburgh a priority. After all, it’s always been her home.

Carrick grew up in the Montour School District in a family with Jewish ancestry on her mother’s side, and is raising her daughter Jewish.

“A lifelong Pittsburgher that I am, I have gone to films at Film Pittsburgh, but I don’t remember the specific experience of the marketing of those programs. That’s something I really want to address,” she said. “Brand awareness in this city can be very confusing. What event are you at? Who is behind it? That’s something me and the team will be focusing on in the coming years.”

When she’s not brainstorming strategy for Film Pittsburgh, Carrick enjoys making perfumes. One of her favorite scents is connected to her Jewish identity — labdanum. “In ancient times, farmers would have goats, would trample through a field of rock rose flowers. Then, the farmers would pick the resin out of the goats’ feet and roll it into incense. That incense was then used in the temple,” she explained.

Carrick didn’t grow up with religion, but finds a connection to Judaism in other ways, including through her relationship with her daughter, who’s now old enough to attend a Jewish summer camp in eastern Pennsylvania. Carrick’s daughter came home with works of art inspired by Shabbat and other Jewish themes, which she found touching.

Though Film Pittsburgh is known for JFilm, its Jewish film festival, Carrick also wants to elevate one of its other festivals, too: ReelAbilities, which highlights films by or about people with disabilities and originates at the Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center in New York. Carrick is neurodivergent herself and sees ReelAbilities as a way for people to understand more about disabled people and their lives.

“These films are for everybody,” Carrick said. “Showing different people and their perspectives is the best way to understand different points of view. Or, film can be armchair travel. But when we’re all in the movie theater together, in silence, that’s something really special.” PJC

ReelAbilities, Film Pittsburgh’s next festival, will run Sept. 4-6 at Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse and virtually Sept. 5-11 in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio.

Emma Riva is a freelance writer living in Pittsburgh.