Emmy winner, a North Huntingdon native, remains passionate about making movies

A North Huntingdon native was pursuing a career in computer engineering in Cleveland in the 1980s when she made an independent film that changed her life, setting her on course for an award-winning career.

“I fell in love with making a movie,” said Annetta Marion about her first experience in filmmaking.

Marion, a 1983 Norwin High School graduate and the daughter of Tom and Mary Jo Marion, has done what she loves so well that she won the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Emmy award in January.

She was recognized in the outstanding documentary or nonfiction special category for her work producing “Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie,” which was released last year.

”We worked really hard on the Michael J. Fox movie and people responded well to that. I’m really grateful for that,” said Marion, who also was the second unit director on the film.

“We wanted to get to the real person. He’s nice and funny and absolutely terrific to work with,” Marion said of Fox, a movie and television star who has Parkinson’s disease.

Her work on the Fox movie also garnered her a nomination in the documentary category by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). It also won the Hope Award at the South by Southwest Film and Music Festival in Austin, Texas, as well as an Astra Award from the Hollywood Creative Alliance.

The accolades she received for the Fox movie were not the first time Marion was recognized for her talent.

She previously was nominated for a 2013 Primetime Emmy in the outstanding informational series as director and segment director of “Oprah’s Master Class” series.

She has a host of credits to her name, including working on a new series, “Park Slope Moms,” and a one-hour drama series, “Twice Royal.”

She worked on an ESPN special about superstar athlete Bo Jackson, who played both in the NFL for the Oakland Raiders and in the MLB for the Kansas City Royals. She connected with many of his former teammates and childhood friends for the documentary on the famous athlete.

“Calm under pressure, Annetta comes with an inexhaustible curiosity to find the true story within our subjects. She would put them at ease, win them over, and go for the heart of the story, every time,” said Jonathan Sinclair, president for nonfiction production at Steel Springs Pictures of Los Angeles, with whom Marion worked with for about 10 years for the Oprah Winfrey Network.

She also has been involved in making major shows for Netflix, MTV, VH1, Apple+ and Investigation Discovery.

Marion is “unflappable and creative on the fly, because she’s done the work before getting to the set,” Sinclair said.

She is a director and producer “who focuses on preparation, preparation, preparation, and yet remains 100% open to the unexpected moments, which make the project all that much better,” Sinclar said in an email statement.

Film start

Annetta Marion could be considered an accidental filmmaker.

She did not go to Case Western University in Cleveland to excel in Hollywood. The daughter of a postal service worker in Irwin was pursuing a more practical career in computer engineering, earning both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

It was while earning her master’s and working that she volunteered for a friend’s nonprofit.

Tasked with writing a grant, she decided to make an independent film. The result was her directorial debut with a 30-minute documentary about abortion rights, according to an interview published in the September 2023 issue of Canvas Rebel magazine.

Marion gave up regular paychecks to switch careers. While studying at Case Western to be a computer engineer, her brush with the business came while taking a course in understanding movies.

“That started my interest in movies,” she said.

She gave up life in Cleveland and sailing in a boat on Lake Erie for life in New York City, also known as Hollywood on the Hudson.

It meant starting from scratch, learning the movie business. She recalled serving as an intern on a few films, then becoming a production assistant, a supervising producer and a director.

The difference between producing a film and directing it, Marion said, is that the director is the chief creator while the producer is the one who works to make the creative happen.

“I think both are equally hard and challenging,” Marion said of producing and director. “Most positions are hard.”

She has been a showrunner, a person in the critical role of overseeing the entire creative process and being responsible for managing the making of a television show.

“The vision of the show as a whole does not come from the freelance or even the staff writer, but from the showrunner,” Marion said.

Marion is taking on the director’s role on a series next year — a project she can’t discuss just yet.

A trait that has served her well throughout her career has been her persistence, a trait she said she shares with her mother, Mary Jo.

“I have been called very persistent,” Marion said with a laugh.

Sinclair calls her “tireless and fearless.”

“She will outwork anyone and holds herself to a high standard which translates into her work,” Sinclair said. “A student of her craft and a mentor to many. Never content, she keeps getting better and better.”

Challenging business

Sitting in a theater watching the finished product of a movie or catching a favorite television show from the comfort of one’s couch, one hardly thinks of the difficulties it took to make what is being seen.

It’s work not suited for everyone — especially those who want to know where they are going to work each day and how long they may be there.

“You work hard, then you don’t,” Marion said. “It’s stressful. It’s a different life.”

The production does not flow as seamlessly as it appears on the big screen or watching on a television. The untrained eye likely will see the work as mass chaos, with cameras, lights and electrical lines snaking along the floor, but Marion said, “I see this beautiful landscape, like a symphony.”

“There’s a lot of ‘hurry up and wait’ involved in making a movie,” she said.

Despite all of that, “the set is my happy place. … I love it,” Marion said. “I feel I have a lifestyle, doing what I am put here on earth to do. I love what I do. I could never stop working.”