Melissa Hayward
Documentary Executive
Melissa is responsible for managing the day-to-day funding of Screenwest’s documentary funding programs and initiatives, working across both development and production.
A screen industry professional with over 20 years’ experience, Melissa’s extensive work in broadcast documentary has spanned research, development, story producing, archive producing, writing, directing, and field producing for ABC, SBS, Discovery Channel and National Geographic.
As a producer, Melissa’s independent projects – the award-winning short documentary Something To Tell You (2011) and the critically acclaimed feature documentary Hotel Coolgardie (2016) have earned recognition at prestigious festivals like Hot Docs, Slamdance, and the Sydney Film Festival. Hotel Coolgardie received a successful independently distributed cinema run across over 20 screens in Australasia and has recently been adapted into the feature film The Royal Hotel starring Julia Garner and Hugo Weaving, set to premiere at TIFF in 2023.
Melissa’s passion for screen-based storytelling was ignited while working as a script supervisor on Australia’s most iconic feature films and TV series, including Blueback, Dirt Music, The Slap, Red Dog: True Blue, Mystery Road, and Offspring after she graduated from Curtin University with Honours in a Bachelor of Screen Arts.