Founder and Writer/Director

WRITER/DIRECTOR: Annetta Laufer

Annetta is the founder of Roman Candle Productions, a film production company focused on black and female–led films.

Her short films have screened at national and international film festivals including Encounters Film Festival, London Short Film Festival, Aesthetica Film Festival, Pan African Film Festival and Uppsala Film Festival.Her short films have earned her the Best Film award at the BFM International Film Festival/Screen Nation for WINNIE AND THE DUPPYBAT, which was also a finalist for the HBO Short Film Award at the American Black Film Festival. She won the Best Screenwriter award at the Indian Cine Film Festival in Mumbai for SCARLET, Best Short Film award at the Black International Film Festival for AFRO PUNK GIRL and was BAFTA long-listed for her last short film THE ARRIVAL.

Annetta is currently developing her feature film COLONY ROOMS, a drama set within the Caribbean community in 1960s Soho London, with the BFI and producer Joy Gharoro Akpojotor (Blue Story, Boxing Day). She is also developing her 2nd feature film WILD SWIMMING (RIVER MISTRESS) with producer Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo (Netflix/Top Boy, Fox Searchlight/Rye Lane) and Film Four, and developing her first TV series LEMON FISH with Buccaneer Media.

As a director, Annetta directed the 2022 New Years Special of the British TV Series DOCTOR WHO for BBC Studios. She is also attached to Morgan Lloyd Malcolm’s upcoming film adaptation of her Laurence Olivier Award winning play EMILIA, based on the life and times of Renaissance poet and Shakespeare contemporary Emilia Bassano. Manon Ardisson (God’s Own Country) and Chiara Ventura from Ardimages UK are producing.

Annetta is represented by Josh Varney and Hannah Linnen at 42 Management.