2025 AIDC Awards Nominees & $5,000 AIDC Southern Light Award Winner Announced
Acknowledging the Best New Australian Documentary and Factual Work, and Outstanding Contributions to the Sector
Today, the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) proudly reveals the exceptional nominees for the 5th annual AIDC Awards, and announces the winner of the 2nd AIDC Southern Light Award for outstanding contribution to nonfiction screen, digital and/or audio media.
The AIDC Awards recognise outstanding works of new Australian documentary and factual content across six categories: Best Feature Documentary, with a $5,000 cash prize presented by Film Finances; Best Documentary / Factual Series; Best Documentary / Factual Single; Best Audio Documentary; Best Short-Form Documentary, with a $3,000 cash prize presented by AFTRS; and Best Interactive/Immersive Documentary.
Complementing the category awards, the winner of of the 2025 AIDC Southern Light Award $5,000 cash prize, presented by AIDC, is co-founder and managing director of prolific West Australian production company Artemis Media, Celia Tait. As winner, Celia will be invited to speak at the 2025 AIDC Awards presentation, held Wednesday 5 March at ACMI in Melbourne / Naarm.
“AIDC is honoured to pay tribute to the extraordinary talent of nonfiction creators and projects for our fifth edition of the AIDC Awards,” said AIDC CEO / Creative Director, Natasha Gadd.
“The calibre of submission across all categories was incredibly impressive and made for the most difficult deliberations we have ever had! Congratulations to all the nominees and thank you to our AIDC 2025 pre-selection committees and juries for their time, expertise and thoughtful consideration. And also a round of applause for Celia Tait on being awarded the 2025 Southern Light Award. Well-earned and greatly deserved.”
VIEW THE LIST OF NOMINEES BELOW
2025 AIDC SOUTHERN LIGHT AWARD WINNER, CELIA TAIT
BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY
This award is supported by completion guarantor Film Finances with a $5,000 cash prize.
Flathead
2024 | Portmanteau Pictures | Director: Jaydon Martin | Producer: Patrick McCabe
Left Write Hook
2024 | Sweetshop & Green | Director: Shannon Owen | Producers: Gal Greenspan, Alice Burgin, Rachel Forbes
Porcelain War
2024 | Songbird Studios in association with Imaginary Lane | Directors: Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev | Producers: Camilla Mazzaferro, Aniela Sidorska, Paula Dupré Pesmen and Olivia Ahnemann
Welcome To Babel
2024 | Nirvana Films, Mayfan, Lichtblick Film | Director: James Bradley | Producer: Graeme Isaac | Editor: Karen Johnson
Dan Read, CEO of Film Finances, said “We believe in the power of documentary filmmaking to inform, inspire, and challenge. We are honoured to once again support the Best Feature Documentary at the 2025 AIDC Awards and celebrate the incredible stories being told.”
Flathead
LEFT WRITE HOOK
PORCELAIN WAR
WELCOME TO BABEL
BEST DOCUMENTARY / FACTUAL SERIES
The Jury: Death on the Staircase
2024 | Northern Pictures | Director: Tosca Looby | Producer: Karina Holden
Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?
2024 | Catalyst, ABC |Director/writer/producer: Jeff Siberry | executive producer: Penny Palmer | series producer: Elle Gibbons
Ray Martin, The Last Goodbye
2024 | BBC Studios Productions Australia | Executive Producers: Sky Kinninmont, Deborah Spinocchia | Series Director: Benjamin Jones
Stuff The British Stole Series 2
2024 | Wildbear Entertainment, Wooden Horse, Cream | Creator/writer/director/executive producer: Marc Fennell | producer: Alan Erson | executive producers: Richard Finlayson, Kate Harrison Karman
The Jury: Death on the Staircase
Megafauna: What Killed Australia’s Giants?
Ray Martin, The Last Goodbye
Stuff The British Stole Series 2
BEST DOCUMENTARY / FACTUAL SINGLE
Gayrabia
2024 | ABC Compass | Director/Producer/Presenter: Patrick Abboud | Editor: Danielle Akayan | Director of Photography: Daniel Hartley-Allen | Executive Producer: Amanda Collinge
Not In My Name
2024 | ABC Compass | Producer/Director: Brietta Hague | Editor: Peter O’Donoghue | Executive Producer: Amanda Collinge
Tough Not Toxic
2024 | ABC Compass | Director: Matt Davis | Editor: Peter O’Donoghue | Executive Producer: Amanda Collinge
Gayrabia
Not In My Name
Tough Not Toxic
BEST SHORT-FORM DOCUMENTARY
Alofa
2024 | Broken Hill Films | Writer/Director/Producer: Rachel Lane | Director of Photography: Mathew Knight | Editor: Kenny Ang
MAHIKA KAI
2024 | GARUWA, Monster Children, Lake Wānaka | Director/producer: Kieran Mpetyane Satour (Gurundji/Malngin, Pertame Arrernte, Worimi & Baloch (Afghan)) | producers: Jamie Brewer, Gizelle Regan, and Ramona Telecican
Trailblazers
2024 | Savage Films, Milestone Films, LM Films | Writer/Director/Producers: Maggie Miles, Maggie Eudes | Producer: Lucy Maclaren
While We Still Have Time
2024 | Independent | Director: Ava Grimshaw-Hall | Producers: Jasper Caverly, Peta Lee Hitchens
Robbie Miles, the Australian Film Television and Radio School’s Head of Industry and Alumni, said, “AFTRS is delighted to support the Best Short-Form Documentary Prize at AIDC. Short Form documentary is a powerful and accessible platform to share compelling stories with diverse audiences and develop the careers of future practitioners.”
Alofa
MAHIKA KAI
Trailblazers
While We Still Have Time
BEST AUDIO DOCUMENTARY
The Palestine Laboratory Podcast
2024 | Drop Site | Key Creatives: Antony Loewenstein, Elle Marsh, Bethany Atkinson-Quinton
This Is Not A Game
2024 | BBC Studios, Audible | Creator: Marc Fennell.
The Unspoken Story of Isabel Pepper
2024 | ABC Radio National Key Creatives: Fiona Pepper, Angela Grant, Michele Rayner.
The Palestine Laboratory Podcast
This Is Not A Game
The Unspoken Story of Isabel Pepper
BEST INTERACTIVE / IMMERSIVE DOCUMENTARY
Julaymba
2024 | Phoria | Director: Joseph Purdam | Executive Producer: Trent Clews-de Castella | Producer/Writer: Kirsty Burchill
Las Awichas
2024 | UNF, Kings College London | Film Futurist/Creative Technologist: Violeta Ayala | Interaction Design: Dan Fallshaw | 3D Artist: Brian Condori Marza
Revival Roadshow
2025 | Independent | Directors/Producers: Luke Conroy, Anne Fehres
Julaymba
Las Awichas
Revival Roadshow
2025 AIDC SOUTHERN LIGHT AWARD
The winner of the second AIDC Southern Light Award for outstanding contribution to nonfiction screen, digital and/or audio media, is producer Celia Tait, co-founder and managing director of Artemis Media, based in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Celia emigrated from the UK in 1993, and together with her late business partner Brian Beaton, was active in pioneering, building and training the factual industry in WA. She continues to mentor screen practitioners.
Celia has worked as a writer, producer, director and executive producer and has won many national and international awards for her work.
Over the last 25 years Artemis has produced high impact factual TV for domestic and international networks and is renowned for stories that inspire, delight and inform.
Celia and her team have pushed the boundaries of factual content, form and inclusivity with creative concepts that bring in big audiences and which help to create social change.
These include The Dream House, Don’t Stop the Music, Maggie Beer’s Big Mission, Australia’s Health Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley, the first seven seasons of Who Do You Think You Are?, Saving Andrew Mallard, New Leash on Life, Storm in a Teacup, Every Family has a Secret, Australia’s Sleep Revolution with Dr Michael Mosley, and Ningaloo Nyinggulu.
Celia is a passionate advocate for the local and national screen industry and is a member of SPA, the IAGC (Industry Advisory Group Committee), which advises the Screenwest Board, a Committee member of Screen Voice, an association for Australian independent screen producers, and a board member for the International Quorum (IQ) of Producers.
We extend our warmest congratulations to Celia and look forward to presenting her with the Southern Light Award at AIDC 2025.
Celia Tait, said, “I am thrilled to be receiving this award. It really is an honor. Thank you to all those talented screen practitioners who have worked closely with me over the years at Artemis, to create our distinctive brand of inclusive high impact, stand out factual TV. And for their on-going support, and tenacity during the many challenging periods that we all face. It is such an exciting and fast changing industry to work in and I remain passionately committed to it. This award is a wonderful endorsement of our collective work – and this recognition will energise me for the next chapter.”
The AIDC Southern Light Award was established in 2024 to celebrate the luminaries of the Australian documentary and factual industry. It expands the scope of the preceding Stanley Hawes Award, presented from 1997-2023, to now include nonfiction screen, digital and/or audio media contributions. The winner receives a $5,000 cash prize from AIDC and is invited to speak at the AIDC Awards Presentation.
Celia Tait, pictured with Michael Mosley
Maggie Beer’s Big Mission (2024)
Celia Tait (and crew), on the Peron Peninsular filming feral cats, directing and producing Return to Eden (1999)
The 2025 AIDC Awards Presentation will be held at ACMI in Melbourne / Naarm on Wednesday 5 March. Click below to learn more about the nominees and the winner of the AIDC Southern Light Award.
Special thanks to The Post Lounge for AIDC Awards audio-visual support.
Main Image (L-R): Porcelain War; Welcome to Babel; Trailblazers; Ray Martin, The Last Goodbye