Jessica Manafort is directing "The Beautiful Ordinary," a teen comedy drama being produced by Persistent Entertainment partners Judd Payne and Matthew Rhodes. Persistent’s Jim Dominello exec produces.

The movie, which Manafort also wrote, revolves around the relationship dynamics of a group of suburban teens on the last day of school in 1999. Casting is under way, with an eye for a shoot this month in Wilmington, N.C.

Manafort is a 23-year-old graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, where she won numerous awards for her short film "Liminality." She is repped by Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

"(Manafort) is one of the most motivated young directors I’ve ever met," Payne said. "She’s wanted to do (movies) since (she was) 8 — she was that kid always doing home movies (out) back. So it’s no fluke that she is weeks away from directing her first feature film."

Of "Ordinary," he added: "We often compare it to a ’Dazed and Confused’ but from a female perspective. I think it’s a really relatable film no matter how old you are, whether you graduated in 1999, 2006 or the late-’80s. We’ve all been through it."

Persistent credits include the recent "An Unfinished Life," and the company is on postproduction with Sean McKittrick on Richard Kelly’s sci-fi action-comedy "Southland Tales." The company also will see its "Walker Payne," with Jason Patric, premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival next month, while "The Sisters," a modern-day adaptation of Chekhov’s play "Three Sisters" starring Maria Bello, is scheduled for limited release Friday.