STAFF & BOARD

With a passion for documentary and factual storytelling spanning two decades, Natasha Gadd is the CEO/Creative Director of the Australian International Documentary Conference. Prior to this role, she was AIDC’s Partnerships and Industry Development Manager, where she oversaw the industry development program which has since unlocked over $2 million in project and professional development funding for AIDC delegates from 2019 to 2024. In 2005, she co-founded Daybreak Films, a Melbourne based production company committed to creating independent and engaging screen content. Natasha’s debut feature documentary, Words From the City was nominated for five AFI Awards and her follow up feature, Murundak: Songs of Freedom, received the Grand Prix – FIFO, Best Documentary – Valladolid International Film Festival, and the United Nations Association of Australia Media Peace Award. She has also made a number of short documentaries for SBS, ABC and Foxtel, including Anatomy: Muscle, for which she received an Australian Directors Guild Best Director award. Natasha has held leadership positions across a number of leading Australian screen organisations including Cinema Programs and Public Programs Manager at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Festival Director of the REAL: Life on Film festival and board member of the National Film and Sound Archive.

Alex has worked in Program, Event, Marketing and General Manager roles with Open Channel Melbourne International Film Festival, Twentieth Century Fox, Cinema Nova, Lumiere Cinemas, and most recently, Palace Cinemas. He is the founder of Melbourne Filmoteca: Spanish, Latin American & Portuguese Film Group; as well as the Melbourne Latin American Film Festival (2004-2007).

At Open Channel he developed a suite of professional and project development programs for emerging screen practitioners including the inaugural Generation Next Documentary Conference, regular discussion panels and networking sessions; and production initiatives delivered in collaboration with Screen Australia, Film Victoria, local government, philanthropic and other partners.

A Canberra native, Alex completed a Bachelor of Arts (Art History & Curatorship) at the Australian National University, before moving to Melbourne and completing Honours in Cinema Studies at La Trobe University.

Chris is a media, communications and marketing professional with extensive experience in the media, arts and not-for-profit sectors. As Marketing & Communications Manager for AIDC, he is responsible for brand management, audience development, market positioning, communications strategy and APAC region engagement. He has also worked as Industry Programmer and CrossCurrents International Fund assessor for the Hot Docs Industry conference in Toronto, Canada, and has research interests in documentary marketplace and pitching forum dynamics. His prior experience includes three years as Marketing Manager for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, a tenure that included the event’s most successful staging in 30 years in 2014, teaching in arts and creative management for the University of Melbourne, editing a weekly music, arts, and film magazine, and freelancing in music and entertainment marketing. He studied screen production and writing at Griffith University and QUT – resulting in a short documentary about the auto towing industry and a Channel [V] Clip of the Week music video – and holds a Master of Global Media Communication degree from the University of Melbourne.

Alice McShane is a seasoned film programmer and arts professional. She came to AIDC from Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, where she served as Program Manager from 2019 until 2022. She has worked with screen organisations across Australia including SXSW Sydney, MIFF, ACMI, and is a board member of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival – a culmination of her efforts and dedication to the festival sector. Alice has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Screen Studies from the University of Melbourne. She is a passionate advocate for the power of nonfiction storytelling and ethical filmmaking, and is thrilled to be returning to the AIDC team as 2024 Conference Programmer. She is excited to be collaborating with industry leaders to champion the sector, celebrate craft, and pay tribute to the change-making power of storytelling.

Melanie began her career at Mushroom Records before setting up Australia’s premier electronic music touring and events agency Agent MAD which she creatively directed for 10 years before moving to Paris to undertake the role of head of business development for an online streaming service. Since returning from Paris, Melanie has focused on program and event management across music and fashion festivals and screen sector conferences and awards events including Stereosonic, The Australian Music Prize, So Frenchy So Chic in The Park, AIDC, The ADG Awards, M/FW, MIFF and Frame Documentary.

Natalie is a film lover with more than five years of experience in exhibition, having worked in festivals and cinemas across Melbourne and London. Locally, she has worked for Melbourne International Film Festival in a variety of roles, as Screen Manager of Environmental Film Festival Australia, and also as Co-Director of Girls on Film Festival from 2016-2018. She is thrilled to return to AIDC for 2023 as Industry Coordinator, having previously been the organisation’s Registrations & Guest Services Coordinator. Natalie also holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and Cultural Management, both from the University of Melbourne. Her experiences with smaller festivals, as well as community-run arts projects in London, have made her a passionate advocate for promoting diverse voices in the film industry and building strong creative communities.

Nicole has experience in multiple Factual TV formats spanning across News and Broadcast, Live shows, Games, Reality and Constructed Reality with a main focus in Observational Documentary filmmaking across Australia, Canada, and the UK. She has experience delivering to international and local broadcasters including SBS, ABC, and Channel 10 in Australia, and Channel 4, Channel 5, BBC2, and ITV in the UK. She is a freelance producer located in Melbourne/Naarm