Annette Haywood-Carter

Annette Haywood-Carter began her directing career with "The Foot Shooting Party" starring Leonardo DiCaprio. A 30-minute narrative, the film was financed by Touchstone Pictures' Discretionary Fund, established by Jeffrey Katzenberg to discover new talent. Premiere magazine featured Annette in an article, "talent to keep an eye on," and the film screened to standing-room-only at Sony Studio's Cary Grant Theater. Prior to her directorial debut, Annette spent a decade working as a script supervisor winning the respect of Academy Award winning producers and directors. Steven Spielberg, Bruce Cohen, Bruce Beresford and Saul Zaentz, among others, took a personal interest in her career and helped her make the leap into directing. Spielberg saw "The Foot Shooting Party" and offered Annette an episode of NBC's "seaQuest DSV" to direct. Lead actor, Roy Scheider asked her to return to direct another episode. Word spread and she was offered her first feature film, "Foxfire," where she demonstrated a keen eye for casting, plucking Angelina Jolie out of auditions for a minor role and offering her the lead. Many credit "Foxfire" for launching Jolie's career. Rysher Entertainment was eager for Annette to direct another film. She pitched an original story, "Love is Strange," and was hired to write the screenplay. The company closed its movie division before the film was made, but sold "Love is Strange" to Lifetime Television with Annette attached to direct. Annette cast Ron Silver, Kate Nelligan and Julie Harris and the movie won a rave review from The Hollywood Reporter. In addition to directing, Annette worked as a writer-for-hire. Her credits include a television miniseries for CBS, a book adaptation for Disney, movie scripts based on producer concepts and rewriting screenplays green-lit for production (script-doctoring). Annette took a break from Hollywood to teach college while her children were young. She helped develop the renowned Film & Television Department at the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) where she taught courses in directing and screenwriting, and served as Thesis Chair on MFA thesis films. Annette returned to the industry in 2010 with the film, "Savannah," starring the late Sam Shepard. She relocated to New York City and founded a film/TV development company. In 2015 she spent a month in Berlin on Showtime's, "Homeland," shadowing director, Alex Graves and producer/ director, Lesli Glatter. After Berlin, she returned to California where she continues to write and create new projects. In 2020, Annette launched a new production company, ARCH Pictures, based out of Santa Monica, California. She is represented by Jackie Eckhouse at Sloss Eckhouse Dasti Haynes LawCo in New York City.