Hayley MacFarlane is an award winning Australian director who grew up in North Queensland. Her debut feature film Swimming For Gold, starring Peyton List, debuted at the 2020 Gold Coast Film Festival and played on over 100 screens across Australia. Distributed by Universal Pictures, it was released across multiple streaming platforms internationally including Hulu and Amazon Prime.

 

Hayley directed 3 episodes of the Netflix Original series Dive Club and was also heavily involved in the writer’s room. The series was in the top 10 on Netflix in over 30 countries, nominated for a Logie Award and an ACCTA for Best Children’s Program. Hayley was nominated for an Australian Directors Guild award for her direction in Episode 7.

 

Hayley wrote and directed the fashion film, Harmony which won a Medaille D’Onore award at the Chicago Fashion Film Festival. She wrote and directed the short film Growing Young, starring Samara Weaving. The film picked up two gold awards at the Independent Film Awards; Samara for a leading role and Hayley for Best Direction, Award of Merit at the Best Shorts Comp USA, Winner Best Narrative Short at the Indiewise Festival and screened at over 30 festivals world-wide.

 

Hayley is a graduate of Griffith Film School, where her graduate film Hummingbirds took out the schools top film award and later won an Award of Merit at the Best Shorts Comp USA before going on to screen at festivals both nationally and internationally including Holly Shorts Film Festival & Byron Bay Film Festival.

 

While based in London, Hayley began directing Reality TV. She has directed the BAFTA award winning I’m a Celebrity.. Get me outta here UK, BAFTA award winning Love Island UK, SAS Australia, Big Brother UK, and many more. In 2023 she Series Directed Love Island Australia and in 2024, Hunted.  

 

She was signed straight out of film school by Brisbane based production company Two Little Films, where she has directed campaigns for clients such as Village Roadshow, Discovery Kids Network, Tourism QLD, Hyundai, Transport & Main Roads and many more.