by Anthony Frajman
Following a record-breaking 2023 event, where delegate attendance levels reached their highest ever, the Australian International Documentary Conference is back for its 29th edition.
Themed ‘Frontlines: Shaping the Future of Documentary & Factual’, AIDC 2024 will focus on filmmakers pushing the boundaries of non-fiction.
Featuring 70 speakers and 100-plus industry decision makers, and an impressive lineup of Oscar®-nominated directors, this year’s program offers must-see talks and insights into the latest documentary trends, from the rise of AI and its impact on the sector, to VR and audio documentaries.
Among the impressive headliners are Pulitzer Prize-winning filmmaker and war correspondent Mstyslav Chernov, director of the multi-award-winning and dual 2024 Oscar®-nominated documentary 20 Days in Mariupol; R.J. Cutler and Trevor Smith of This Machine Filmworks, the creative team behind hit documentaries like The September Issue, Big Vape: The Rise & Fall of Juul, Billie Eilish: The World’s a Little Blurry, Listen to Me Marlon, Belushi, and The World According to Dick Cheney; and Rachel Perkins, founder of Blackfella Films, responsible for landmark documentary series First Australians and The Australian Wars.
AIDC 2024 will also be attended by decision makers from Amazon’s Prime Video, Stan, Hulu, DocPlay, ESPN and Docsville and representatives from local and international broadcasters, such as National Geographic, Channel 4, BBC Storyville, ARTE G.E.I.E, PBS, POV, CBC, Sky New Zealand, NHK Enterprises, DW, EBS Korea, TRT World, ABC, SBS and NITV.
Ahead of the conference, we spoke with AIDC CEO and Creative Director, Natasha Gadd.
This year, the focus of the conference is around frontlines. Can you tell us about this?
“I think documentary and factual storytellers really lean into telling hard truths about the world around us. And so, whether that’s being on the literal frontlines of a conflict zone, like Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol, or revealing concealed histories through an investigative format. And so, I wanted to honour that, not just for those at the frontlines, but also for those who are daring to push boundaries. And to experiment and to challenge us in different ways through the way that they tell stories. For example, a film like Four Daughters, is a story of a woman whose daughters ran away and joined ISIS in Syria. The director brings in a number of actors to play the two girls who had run away and the mother, and sets up these scenarios so that they can flesh out what happened and help them understand the truth a bit more.”
There are several strands within the program relating to frontlines. Can you tell us about them?
“There’s definitely a number of sub themes. ‘Courage of Conviction’ is one that we are looking at, which is more along the lines of 20 Days in Mariupol. And then, ‘Persistence of Vision’, which is what we’re talking about with Four Daughters. Really craft-based experimentation and creatively pushing boundaries. But we’ve also got ‘Edge of Reality’, traditionally this is where we look at more immersive interactive storytelling, but I don’t think we can go past this year without deep diving into AI and what that means for our sector, which is a little bit unknown. Looking at the potential of AI, which could be helpful for a lot of independent filmmakers in terms of the heavy lifting that they do, and being able to assist through various stages of production. But, for a form like documentary that is traditionally grounded in some form of truth or reality, what impact is AI going to have in terms of ensuring truth and the veracity of footage? We know that there’s a threat of misinformation and disinformation, and with AI, people not being able to distinguish anymore between what is real and what’s been generated by AI.
“Another Body is a documentary about a woman who had videos made using her face that was deepfake in pornography. And so, the filmmakers ended up using that concept to tell her story with a deepfake of her own face, so that her identity and the documentary is protected.”

We continue to see political documentaries in the marketplace, such as 20 Days in Mariupol. Is that a trend that you think is going to keep growing?
“Possibly. I think it’s also just something that we like to lean into. Given where we are in this point in time, it just felt important to lean into that sort of storytelling. And yeah, some pretty, pretty hard times out there are being documented, but I think there has been a growing trend. I think when we see so much propaganda through social media, around political figures and we maybe lean into those stories where you’re going to get something out other that is more than a bite-sized piece of information that you don’t really know how you can trust, and then you can watch something in a longer form and determine a bit more for yourself.”
What are a couple of opportunities and challenges for Australian documentarians in 2024, from your point of view?
“I think one of the major ones is the fact that there is no regulation of streamers at the moment in terms of content quotas. So, commissioning has really dropped off. Initially, there was this great promise and all these new opportunities for documentary filmmakers to find a new home outside of the public broadcasters and outside of a theatrical release but, what we’ve seen is a real drop off of local commissions from the streamers. And, there are only limited slots available for feature docos in particular and very few on public broadcasters. And as theatrical distribution can dwindle a bit for documentaries, it’s about finding new avenues and new platforms. There are definitely a lot of great subscriber-based documentary platforms like DocPlay, but the problem is that bigger streamers are not necessarily commissioning. I think that’s what people are going to struggle with. There’s a lot of advocacy work being done to bring the quotas in. There’ll be a session around that at AIDC.”
There is a streaming presence at the conference this year. Are you optimistic about the streaming landscape for docos?
“Whilst we have got some of the streamers involved this year, it’s not nearly as large as it has been in previous years. I think that is largely because there isn’t that commissioning focus that was happening a few years ago here. A lot of the streamers set up offices in Australia and started to look for content from the APAC region. That’s dropped off a bit and I think that’s why there’s a really important need for this advocacy work that’s being done about regulation, streamers and content quotas. But, Amazon Prime and Hulu and obviously DocPlay are involved, and they will be talking about what they’re looking for and that’s really important; to facilitate opportunities for those streamers who are actively looking for content from here.”
Do you think there’s still a theatrical upside for documentaries in Australia?
“Absolutely. We’ve got a session on music biographies, looking at case studies of a couple that had really big theatrical releases, but also landed on streamers and commercial networks, like EGO: The Michael Gudinski Story and John Farnham” Finding the Voice and also OneFour: Against All Odds, that was on Netflix, all of which found really big audiences and prove that there is definitely a market for it and an interest, across lots of different platforms.”
What would your advice be for attendees and particularly first-time attendees at the conference this year?
“Over the years, we’ve been really opening up opportunities for emerging practitioners. Even if you don’t have a project to pitch, the sessions are so inspiring and exciting, and you don’t have to have that full knowledge to be part of it. It’s very open and welcoming. We’ve got a fantastic program, which we run each year called ‘Leading Lights’. It’s open for emerging indigenous, culturally and linguistically diverse deaf, disabled and neurodiverse and LGBTQIA+ filmmakers. The passes are donated by the sector, and that’s a real great entry level program to come in on, because there’s an introduction to pitching. And there’s a group that meets every morning.
“I remember going to AIDC two decades ago, and finding it absolutely impossible to navigate and finding it incredibly overwhelming and daunting and hard to find time to meet with any buyers and decision makers. So, we’ve got a lot of programs now that actually wrap around that scaffolding to help connect people, so that it’s not quite so overwhelming.”
What was the biggest challenge for you in putting the program together this year?
“I think this has been the hardest year in putting the program together. I feel like the world got really busy last year, and everyone went back into intense work mode, and also the fact that we’ve introduced this hybrid form, that we can all do both in person and we can do virtual… So, I think because we have this hybrid option, and we seem to be successfully picking the Oscar nominees each year, actually pinning them down and working out time zones is really tricky. I think we’ve got one session where we’ve got someone from Greenland, someone from Denmark, someone from Montreal, and we’ve got to find a time that’s going to work for all…”
What was your favourite documentary from 2023?
“I definitely think Four Daughters and 20 Days in Mariupol are the standouts for me. And also, A Still Small Voice, the Luke Lorentzen documentary, this is the most beautiful, intimate, quietly observed documentary about a woman who’s going through a chaplaincy program, part of a hospital residency.”
AIDC 2024 takes place in-person at ACMI in Melbourne, from 3-6 March 2024, with an online-only international marketplace 7-8 March 2024. For more information, head here.