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The Australian International Documentary Conference celebrated a record-breaking edition after holding its first expanded in-person event after two previous hybrid and virtual outings.

Held at Melbourne’s Australia Centre for the Moving Image on March 5- 8, the lively four-day conference of industry panels, screenings and networking events was followed by a three-day online international marketplace (March 9 – 11) that drew 820 documentary and factual industry delegates. The numbers were the highest in 20 years and the most attendees since the event relocated to Melbourne in 2016.

The third annual awards were also announced on March 8 with the top prize for best documentary feature going to “Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow,” director Philippa Bateman’s portrait of musician and activists Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter.

The award for best documentary/factual series was won by Blackfella Films’ “The Australian Wars,” a three-part series, commissioned by Sbs, that illuminates and questions Australia’s dark colonial past.

Sara Dosa, India’s Shaunak Sen and Canada’s Daniel Roher, directors of three documentaries which recently picked up Academy Award nominations, are set as speakers at the upcoming Australian International Documentary Conference.

The Aidc this week announced the full program for its 2023 event which will place in person in Melbourne March 5-8, with an online only international marketplace March 9 -11.

Dosa is the director of “Fire of Love,” Sen director of “All That Breathes” and Roher director of “Navalny.”

Other notable speakers include New Zealand’s David Farrier (“Dark Tourist”), acclaimed Aboriginal filmmaker Dean Gibson, (“Incarceration Nation”) and Australian filmmaker Emma Sullivan ( “Into The Deep”).

With Agents of Change as its unifying theme, the conference will host over 40 sessions, 120 speakers and more than 100 key decision makers from major broadcasters, streamers, distributors and sales agents.

On the business front, Aidc will see an extensive line-up from global streamers in attendance,...

From streaming to virtual reality, what Aidc CEO and creative director Natasha Gadd sees in the documentary space right now is a wealth of new opportunity. She runs If through the sessions and market program for this year's hybrid March event.

The post Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Way Brothers to speak at Aidc as full program unveiled appeared first on If Magazine.

The Australian International Documentary Conference will welcome back in-person attendance while retaining online components for next year’s event, which will carry the theme of Bearing Witness.

Details of the hybrid program were announced today, with conference sessions set to return to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (Acmi) in Melbourne from March 6-9 and simultaneously broadcast via the Aidc online event platform.

Confirmed to speak as part of the 2022 lineup are former co-head of movies at Amazon Studios and US independent producer Ted Hope, Chinese-born US director Nanfu Wang, LA-based Australian director Eva Orner, and producer Sue Maslin.

The conference will be the first under new CEO and creative director Natasha Gadd, who said it would celebrate non-fiction storytellers who continued to innovate and adapt to tell stories during times of crisis.

Natasha Gadd.

“Aidc is proud to introduce our first ever hybrid event to enable documentary and...

Doc Society and Aidc are inviting applications for a year-long creative mentorship and impact strategy fellowship set to begin in October.

Supported through Screen Australia’s Enterprise Funding Program, the Art & Impact Fellowship will assist five Australian project teams to build strategies for using an independent documentary project as a tool for change, focusing on the development of storytelling, impact, distribution, engagement and financing pathways.

The program includes a five-day story and impact lab, a year of support and mentoring, access to the Aidc 2022 marketplace, and a capstone market pitch to key international and Australian decision-makers.

Global director of Good Pitch at Doc Society Malinda Wink and Doc Society director of Australian programs Hollie Fifer will lead the program, which begins on October 18.

Wink said the fellowship was designed to support ambitious documentary projects that brought a unique perspective.

“In the context of threats to democracy, our climate, social movements,...

Documentary filmmaker, editor, and cinematographer Daniel King will start an eight-month placement with the ABC and Northern Pictures this month after being announced as the inaugural recipient of the Indigenous Documentary Placement.

Co-presented by the ABC, Northern Pictures, and the Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc), the initiative is designed to fast-track the careers of Indigenous non-fiction screen practitioners.

King will work with Northern Pictures’ factual team from May to September on the development of their slate, provide production support for current and upcoming projects and assist the team in identifying and developing diverse on and off screen talent.

From September through to next January, he will work with the ABC Factual and Culture team on their upcoming slate for 2022, with a focus on learning the development, commissioning and editorial production process.

King said he was excited to develop his skills.

“I’m honoured and grateful to be given this opportunity...

As the Australian International Documentary Conference (Aidc) heads into its 35th year, Natasha Gadd has been promoted by the board to CEO/creative director, succeeding Alice Burgin.

Most recently Aidc’s partnerships and industry development manager, Gadd has more than two decades of experience in the non-fiction sector, working across production, programming and distribution.

In 2005, she co-founded Daybreak Films, and her debut feature documentary, Words From the City was nominated for five AFI Awards. Her other credits include projects such as Murundak: Songs of Freedom and Anatomy: Muscle.

Over her career, she has worked worked as a cinema programs and public programs manager at the Acmi, festival director of the Real: Life on Film festival and board member of the National Film and Sound Archive (Nfsa).

At Aidc, Gadd has helped to steer an industry development program that unlocked $1.4 million in project and professional development funding for delegates across a three-year period.

The Australian Director’s Guild has announced its nominees for the 2012 Adg Awards

Across the various categories, the nominations include Justin Kurzel for Snowtown, Matthew Saville for The Slap, Tony Krawitz for The Tall Man, Paul Scott for documentary series Outback Fight Club and Bruce Hunt for Subaru Xv’s Carwash.

The ceremony will be held as part of the Adg’s 30th anniversary at the Australian Maritime Museum in Sydney on May 11.

Kingston Anderson, general manager of the Adg said: “This will be the largest celebration and Awards ceremony the Adg has ever hosted and will be an opportunity to highlight the many achievements of Adg members over the past 30 years and the significant role they have played in the development of the Australian screen industry, as well as to honour the best directors of 2012.”

The nominations are:

Feature film

Brendan Fletcher - Mad Bastards

Justin Kurzel – Snowtown

Julia Leigh...

Australian directors have walked away with three of the five awards handed out at the Pacific International Documentary Festival in Tahiti, Fifo 9.

The festival showcases documentaries that centre on issues relating to the Pacific or the lives of the people inhabiting the area.

Natasha Gadd and Rhys Graham picked up the Grand Prix prize for Murandak, Songs of Freedom. The documentary provides an insight into Aboriginal protest music as it follows Indigenous musician supergroup, the Black Arm Band, from the Outback to the Sydney Opera House. Murundak, which means .alive. in Woirurrung language, explores the elements of sorrow and resistance in Indigenous protest music, and features pioneering singes such as Archie Roach, Bart Willoughby, and the late Ruby Hunter.

The Special Jury prize was shared by The Hungry Tides director, Tom Zubrycki, and Ochre & Ink director, James Bradley.

The Hungry Tides explores the vulnerability of the Pacific in relation to climate change.

Australian directors have walked away with three of the five awards handed out at the Pacific International Documentary Festival in Tahiti, Fifo 9. The festival showcases documentaries that centre on issues relating to the Pacific or the lives of the people inhabiting the area. Natasha Gadd and Rhys Graham picked up the Grand Prix prize for Murandak, Songs of Freedom. The documentary provides an insight into Aboriginal protest music as it follows Indigenous musician supergroup, the Black Arm Band, from the Outback to the Sydney Opera House. Murundak, which means .alive. in Woirurrung language, explores the elements of sorrow and resistance in Indigenous protest music, and features pioneering singes such as Archie Roach, Bart Willoughby, and the late Ruby Hunter. The...

From little things big things grow.  In the opening scenes of murundak - songs of freedom, against a picturesque Australian sunset, Paul Kelly's famous lyrics are sung by the enchanting voice of Emma Donovan.   It is in these first few moments that murundak establishes its enduring theme: how individuals from humble beginnings can create great change.   murundak follows The Black Armed Band, an Aboriginal protest group who tour Australia and Europe with their peaceful songs of freedom and resistance.   From AFI nominated filmmakers Rhys Graham and Natasha Gadd, murundak explores the history of the indigenous protest movement. With images of protests from the '70s and '80s and candid interviews with band members who have continued to struggle for reform, the film discovers how this group of musicians are using their songs to remind Australians that Aboriginal activism is still alive today.

About 600 arts lovers converged on the Forum Theatre in Melbourne earlier this month.for the.world premiere of new documentary.Murundak . songs of freedom. The documentary.. which follows The Black Arm Band who sing up the country.s troubled past through their stories of sorrow, anger and hope . was made over four years by filmmakers Natasha Gadd and Rhys Graham. The next screenings for the documentary will be at the BigPond.Adelaide Film Festival and March's WOMADelaide festival. Murundak - songs of freedom credits: Written & Directed by Rhys Graham & Natasha Gadd Cinematography by Rhys Graham & Natasha Gadd Produced by Philippa Campey Producer - Natasha Gadd Associate Producer...