The four-day Australian International Documentary Conference will feature discussions, pitch sessions, and events focused on industry change-makers.
Documentary die-hards, mark your calendars – Australia’s premier non-fiction filmmaking industry forum has given us our first taste of what’s to come for 2023. The Australian International Documentary Conference, running March 5 to 8 at ACMI in Melbourne, will host a variety of programs including industry panel discussions, pitch events, awards ceremonies, and an international online marketplace.
This year’s theme, Agents of Change, is centred around upcoming voices, investigative storytelling, shifting perspectives, and future innovations and technologies. Some of the keynote speakers announced so far include award-winning filmmakers Shaunak Sen, whose feature documentary All That Breathes took the L’Oeil d’Or at Cannes 2022, and Rita Baghdadi, whose film Sirens following a female metal band from Lebanon is doing the festival rounds. Naked Television’s managing director Fatima Salaria and director Sara Dosa are also set to speak.
Australian International Documentary Conference 2023
- The conference will run from March 5 to 8 at ACMI
- An international online marketplace will follow from March 9 to 11
- So far, speakers include Sara Dosa, Shaunak Sen, Rita Baghdadi, and Fatima Salaria
- Filmmakers will have an opportunity to pitch their ideas to a group of leading industry decision-makers
Stay up to date with what’s happening in and around Melbourne here.
Future filmmakers can try their luck at the conference’s highlight event, the FACTory international pitching showcase, now accepting submissions. The Cut to the Chase series brings producers together with professionals from all sides of the filmmaking spectrum.
This year, AIDC has received funding from the City of Melbourne to run an Innovation Day showcase at the start of the conference, dedicated to emerging technologies, non-traditional truth-telling, and new media practices. With other support from VicScreen, SBS, and ABC, it’s on track to be one of the conference’s strongest years yet.
“Documentary and factual content creators are crucial to our understanding of a rapidly changing and increasingly complex world – supporting these practitioners to tell courageous stories has never been more important,” says ACMI CEO and director, Seb Chan.
The full program is set to be announced on January 25. Register for your pass here.
