The Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) announces the full program for its 2025 event – including over 40 sessions, more than 115 speakers and 90 industry decision makers – taking place in-person at ACMI in Melbourne / Naarm, from 2-5 March 2025 with an online-only international marketplace 6-7 March 2025, presented by Principal Partner VicScreen, Presenting Partners ACMI and Screen Australia, and Major Partners ABC and SBS.
Inspired by the theme Future Telling: New Horizons in Documentary & Factual Storytelling, the AIDC 2025 program features talent working at the cutting edge of every facet of documentary and factual, including Oscar®-nominated and Oscar®-winning filmmakers, groundbreaking Australian and international storytellers, and some of the industry’s most successful business insiders.
High-profile new additions to the lineup include a Spotlight session with Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, co-directors of the 2025 Academy Award®-nominated feature documentary Sugarcane, discussing their epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of cultural reckoning.
Also joining the Spotlight session program is director Piotr Winiewicz, who took Werner Herzog’s provocation “A computer will not make a film as good as mine in 4,500 years” and trained AI on all of Herzog’s works, resulting in the mind-bending hybrid documentary, About a Hero.
Previously announced AIDC Spotlight speakers include Academy Award®-winner and two-time Academy Award®-nominated American producer and writer, Shane Boris, responsible for producing Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love (2022) and David Roher’s Navalny (2022) – making him the first producer since 1942 to be nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature in the same year – and most recently the acclaimed Hollywoodgate (2023), directed by Ibrahim Nash’at. Joining Shane on the Spotlight sessions bill is Shiori Ito, journalist and director of the 2025 Academy Award®-nominated expose of silence on sexual assault, Black Box Diaries.
Other highlights include Spotlight sessions with filmmaker, transmedia storyteller and human rights advocate Gabriel Shipton, collaborator on Censored, a crypto art activation that helped fund the defence of his brother, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange; award-winning director Gabrielle Brady and Mongolian producer Ariunaa Tserenpil, discussing co-authorship and co-creation in relation to new hybrid documentary, The Wolves Always Come at Night; and an unmissable archive workshop with prolific Canadian visual researcher and clearance specialist Elizabeth Klinck (Into the Inferno, Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words, Stories We Tell).
The lineup also features presenter, documentarian and podcaster Marc Fennell; mountaineer, cinematographer and adventure filmmaker Renan Öztürk (The Last Tepui, Meru); and collaborators on the new film Deeper, acclaimed director Jennifer Peedom (Sherpa, Mountain) and key diver in the Tham Luang cave rescue Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris.
On the marketplace front, a wide range of decision makers from local and international media brands, platforms and broadcasters will participate in-person and virtually at AIDC 2025, including ABC, Al Jazeera, Amazon Prime Video, American Documentary | POV, ARTE France, BBC Storyville, CBC, Channel 4, EBS Korea/EIDF, Hulu, National Geographic, NHK, NITV, Paramount, PTS, SBS, STAN, SVT, TVNZ, Warner Bros. Discovery, and more.
Plus, expect to find studios, distributors and producer-distributors for some of the world’s most interesting documentaries and releases, including Autlook Filmsales, The Party Film Sales, CAT&Docs, Fred Media & Radar MCN, Limonero Films, Love Nature / Blue Ant Media, Madman Entertainment, Off the Fence, Quintus Studios, Sideways Film, TVF International, and Umbrella Entertainment.
For those seeking new pathways to funding and financing, AIDC 2025 will also host an array of representatives from leading documentary development funds and foundations, like Catapult Film Fund, Doc Society, The Whickers, Shark Island Foundation, and the International Emerging Film Talent Association (IEFTA).
As a result of a suite of exciting AIDC Industry Development Program initiatives and partnerships with pitch partners Shark Island Foundation, The Post Lounge, and Indigenous Business Australia (IBA); Awards partners AFTRS, and Film Finances; FACTory pitch prize partners; and Leading Lights program partners AFTRS and ECU alongside 20 industry donors, AIDC 2025 will unlock over $200,000 in project development, awards, prizes and professional development opportunities for new nonfiction content and support for documentary and factual practitioners.
Reflecting on collective and diverse experiences of what has come before and what is happening in the present, AIDC 2025’s central theme – Future Telling: New Horizons in Documentary & Factual Storytelling – invites us to envision possible or alternative futures for practitioners and the sector.
The conference will explore the following subthemes through Spotlight sessions, industry panels, screenings and initiatives: Dokpolitik (advocacy, sector shifts, reform, policy change), Curious Truths (experimentation in form, creative nonfiction, investigative storytelling), Stories Without Borders (co-pros, international formats, crossing genres, field building), ReFraming Reality (future of truth, innovation, new technologies and future-casting), and Pulling Focus (sustainability, audience and distribution, impact and narrative strategy).
Natasha Gadd, CEO / Creative Director, AIDC, said, “As we stand at the precipice of a new era for our sector, at AIDC 2025 we turn our lens to the future of documentary and factual storytelling to create a forum that not only explores what is on the horizon but also creates a dialogue for us to actively shape the future we want to see for ourselves and our sector. At AIDC 2025 we explore what changes, challenges and possibilities lie ahead in a rapidly evolving media landscape – from industry reform, to innovative modes of creating, new ways of seeing and inventive ways of taking our stories to audiences across the globe. We are thrilled to announce such a world-class program of speakers and sessions for the 2025 program, all of which are guaranteed to probe, provoke and inspire. Joined by our industry program’s impressive lineup of local and international decision makers and suite of new initiatives, AIDC 2025 is set to support the creation of bold new works, drive new outcomes and build new collaborations.
Caroline Pitcher, CEO, VicScreen, said,“AIDC is set to illuminate Melbourne this March, with another electrifying program of premieres, panels, and meetings. AIDC creates significant opportunities for local talent to connect with some of the world’s leading documentary and factual storytellers. VicScreen is proud to continue our longstanding partnership with AIDC, reinforcing Victoria’s position as a global centre for innovation in screen – stimulating stories that have the power to create dialogue, encourage action, and change lives.”
Seb Chan, Director & CEO, ACMI, said,”AIDC’s 2025 theme of Future Telling resonates deeply with ACMI as we continue our long-standing presenting partnership with Australia’s premier screen conference. ACMI is a future-focused museum and dedicated to being a gathering place for screen practitioners to reach new horizons in documentary and factual storytelling. We’re delighted to host this year’s conference and collaborate with AIDC across public-access screenings for the Documented film program.”
