diff --git a/changelog.d/1014-director-callback-failures.md b/changelog.d/1014-director-callback-failures.md
index 65118b7a9..f3877eca4 100644
--- a/changelog.d/1014-director-callback-failures.md
+++ b/changelog.d/1014-director-callback-failures.md
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
-Director clock listeners, interaction observers and scene release failures no longer leave the director inconsistent, and a phase error is kept when cleanup also fails (deepeshbind, #1014).
+- Director clock listeners, interaction observers and scene release failures
+  no longer leave the director inconsistent: each scene is released once, and
+  a phase error is kept (with the release failure logged) when cleanup also
+  fails (deepeshbind, #1014).
diff --git a/src/director/playback.js b/src/director/playback.js
index 2e243d748..3c060b2bb 100644
--- a/src/director/playback.js
+++ b/src/director/playback.js
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ export async function playSceneQueue(
   const cancelled = () => Boolean(token.cancelled || token.signal?.aborted);
   let activeScene = null;
   let completedShots = 0;
-  let runError = null;
+  let runFailed = false;
   try {
     if (!queue.length || cancelled()) {
       return {
@@ -86,7 +86,7 @@ export async function playSceneQueue(
     if (!cancelled()) await adapter.complete?.();
     return { status: cancelled() ? 'cancelled' : 'completed', completedShots };
   } catch (error) {
-    runError = error;
+    runFailed = true;
     throw error;
   } finally {
     if (releaseOnFinish && activeScene) {
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ export async function playSceneQueue(
       try {
         await adapter.releaseScene(toRelease);
       } catch (error) {
-        if (runError) {
+        if (runFailed) {
           console.warn('[Scenes] Scene release failed:', error);
         } else {
           throw error;
diff --git a/src/director/playback.test.mjs b/src/director/playback.test.mjs
index 0141f2b01..820e8186e 100644
--- a/src/director/playback.test.mjs
+++ b/src/director/playback.test.mjs
@@ -239,3 +239,25 @@ test('a failing inter-scene release releases the active scene only once', async
   );
   assert.deepEqual(released, ['a']);
 });
+
+test('a falsy phase failure is still preserved over a release failure', async () => {
+  const releaseError = new Error('release failed');
+  const origWarn = console.warn;
+  console.warn = () => {};
+  try {
+    const f = fixture({
+      travel: async () => {
+        throw undefined;
+      },
+      releaseScene: async () => {
+        throw releaseError;
+      },
+    });
+    await assert.rejects(
+      playSceneQueue(buildPlaybackQueue(scenes, 'a', { single: true }), f),
+      (error) => error === undefined,
+    );
+  } finally {
+    console.warn = origWarn;
+  }
+});