✈️ Get to know a little bit more about the first confirmed guest speakers for AIDC 2026: Hold True, including:

🧠 Aloke Devichand, Head of Docs for Louis Theroux`s award-winning @mindhousetv
🎸 Rita Baghdadi, director of `Sirens` and co-founder of @ladyandbirdfilms
🐘 Tom McDonald, National Geographic`s EVP of Content
✂️ Maya Daisy Hawke, feature doc editor extraordinaire and regular Werner Herzog collaborator

The full AIDC 2026 program, including all speakers and decision makers, will be announced in January 2026.

AIDC 2026: Hold True takes place 2-5 March at @acmionline, Melbourne / Naarm, followed by an online international marketplace 11-12 March. Thanks to Principal Partner @wearevicscreen, Presenting Partners @acmionline and @screenaustralia, and Major Partners @abcaustralia and @sbs_australia

🔗 See link in bio to learn more about AIDC 2026 and buy passes.

#documentary #factual #AIDC2026 #HoldTrue

✊❤️ We are thrilled to announce the theme and first confirmed guests for AIDC 2026!

Next year, AIDC celebrates the solidarity and resilience of the documentary and factual community, inviting us to come together under the theme ✊ HOLD TRUE ✊ in order to safeguard creative practice and the principles of truth, and, importantly, to fortify a sustainable future for our filmmakers, our sector and our stories.

📢 First speakers announced:
• Aloke Devichand (UK) Head of Documentaries for Louis Theroux’s @mindhousetv
• Rita Baghdadi (USA) Filmmaker (‘Sirens’, ‘Photographer: Finding the Light’) and co-founder of @ladyandbirdfilms
• Tom McDonald (UK/USA) Executive Vice President of Content for @natgeo
• @mayadaisyhawke (NZ/USA) Editor and frequent Werner Herzog collaborator (‘Navalny’, ‘Sugarcane’, ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’, ‘Grizzly Man’)

💼 Plus, new & returning decision makers, including representatives from:
@amdocdocumentary | @povdocs (USA), Asian Shadows (Hong Kong), @blueantmedia / Love Nature (USA), @blueicedocs (Canada), @cargofilmdocs (USA), CAT&Docs (France), Channel 4 (UK), @dogwoof (UK), Hulu (USA), Points North Institute (USA), and many more!

✨ Other early announcement highlights include the return of the @sharkislandinstitute Feature Docs Pitch, with up to $100k in funding and the chance to participate in a new Shark Island Kangaroo Valley Development Lab. Plus, the return of the $5k AIDC Southern Light Award celebrating outstanding contribution to Australian documentary and factual, and the 11th edition of AIDC’s market centrepiece, The FACTory International Pitching Forum, presented by VicScreen.

Huge thanks to Principal Partner @wearevicscreen, Presenting Partners @acmionline and @screenaustralia, and Major Partners @abcaustralia and @sbs_australia.

Check the link in our bio for all the details.

Source image credits:
1. `Floodland` (2025) @mofa_stories | Photo by Jordan Giusti
2. Tommy “Walkabout” Jangala (Kaytetye) `The Truth About the Telegraph` (2025) @ga.ru.wa x National Communications Museum

#AIDC2026 #HOLDTRUE #documentary #factual #nonfiction #documentaryfilmmaker #documentaryfilmmaking

🏭 NEW PITCH PRIZES ANNOUNCED FOR AIDC 2026 FACTORY PITCHING FORUM 🏭

Four new international pitch prizes have been added to the AIDC 2026 FACTory International Pitching Forum prize pool:

• @sheffdocfest Networking Award 2026 FACTory Prize (UK)
• @visionsdureel 2026 FACTory Prize (Switzerland)
• @docedgeindustry NZ 2026 FACTory Prize (NZ)
• @rainafilmfestivaldistribution 2026 FACTory Prize (Finland)

Alongside these new prizes, successful FACTory applicants will also be in the running for complimentary passes, market fee waivers, and more from the previously announced:

• @sunnysidedoc 2026 FACTory Prize (France)
• Docs by the Sea 2026 FACTory Prize (Indonesia) @indocs
• @dmzdocs Industry 2026 FACTory Prize (South Korea)
@dokleipzig 2026 FACTory Prize (Germany)

🌏 AIDC’s FACTory pitch prizes open up a host of international market pathways for FACTory projects with global appeal, supplementing the opportunity to pitch projects to a world-class line-up of Australian and international buyers and funders.

Submit your project today! Applications close 5 Nov (or 9 Nov with late fee). The FACTory is proudly presented by @wearevicscreen

See link in bio to learn more and apply 🔗

📷 Director Beatrice Leong pitching THE MYTH OF MONSTERS at FACTory 2025, winner of the DMZ Docs and Doc Edge pitch prizes. Photos by @maxroux__

#AIDC2026 #TheFACTory #Documentary #DocMakers #FilmFunding #Pitching #AustralianFilm #VicScreen #DocLife #Filmmakers #IndieFilm #DocuSeries #FilmFestival