AIDC & ACMI ANNOUNCE ‘DOCUMENTED’ SCREENING PROGRAM FOR AIDC 2025
FEATURING 2025 BEST DOCUMENTARY OSCARⓇ-NOMINEES SUGARCANE AND BLACK BOX DIARIES
Celebrate the power of documentary storytelling on the big screen with AIDC 2025’s Documented screening program, co-presented with ACMI.
Complementing this year’s AIDC program is a tightly curated selection of documentaries from around the world, screening at ACMI cinemas in Fed Square, Melbourne / Naarm.
This year, our program is woven into the fabric of the AIDC 2025 theme: FUTURE TELLING. Celebrating innovation in form (About a Hero), hybrid documentary (The Wolves Always Come at Night), powerful observations (Hollywoodgate) or those leading the way in Oscar®-nominated investigative storytelling (Sugarcane, Black Box Diaries), this program spotlights films that are guiding the way to the future of documentary cinema.
Several films by AIDC 2025 speaker guests feature in the program, with three Victorian premiere screenings and a chance to catch Q&As with the filmmakers at two sessions.
The Victorian premiere of the fascinating About a Hero, the “AI-assisted Werner Herzog documentary” that opened IDFA 2024, includes a pre-recorded Q&A with director Piotr Winiewicz after the screening. Also a Victorian premiere, hybrid documentary The Wolves Always Come at Night by award-winning director Gabrielle Brady and Mongolian producer Ariunaa Tserenpil, will feature an in-person Q&A with Brady following the screening.
Two 2025 OscarⓇ-nominated films are showing: Sugarcane by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, and Black Box Diaries by Shiori Ito. All three of these filmmakers are AIDC 2025 Spotlight speakers. There’s also the Victorian premiere of acclaimed documentary Hollywoodgate, which provides a fly-on-the-wall glimpse of the Taliban, directed by Ibrahim Nash’at and produced by OscarⓇ-winner and AIDC 2025 Spotlight speaker Shane Boris (Navalny).
Finally, a free session of short films curated by The Guardian Documentaries is part of the program, which includes two shorts from the UK and one from Australia. It will be introduced by Gabrielle Jackson, Deputy Editor of Guardian Australia.
“As part of our ongoing partnership with ACMI, we are proud to present the 2025 Documented Screening Program, featuring award-winning documentaries created by visionary filmmakers joining AIDC as guests of our 2025 Future Telling Program,” said Natasha Gadd, AIDC CEO / Creative Director.
“From the meta mind-bending, AI-assisted About a Hero, to the truth-telling tour de force of Sugarcane, the hybrid co-creation of The Wolves Always Come at Night, the calling of truth to power of Black Box Diaries, and the undercover investigation of Hollywoodgate, this is a documentary program not to be missed. Kudos to AIDC Programmer Alice McShane for curating this year’s impressive screening program alongside the AIDC 2025 conference sessions.”
All screenings in the Documented film program are open to the public, with tickets required to be purchased via the ACMI website or in person from the ACMI ticket desk. Please note that while the session of short films presented by The Guardian is free, all attendees will require a ticket to be admitted.
For full session details and links to ticketing, please visit our SCREENINGS page.
ABOUT A HERO
Presented by AIDC & ACMI
A murder mystery – unwittingly starring Werner Herzog – unfolds in this ironically self-reflexive hybrid doc directed by Piotr Winiewicz and adapted from an AI-generated screenplay trained on Herzog’s oeuvre.
Join us for this Victorian premiere screening that includes a pre-recorded Q&A with director Piotr Winiewicz following the film.
ACMI Cinema 1, 6:30pm, Saturday 1 March
FUTURE TELLING: SHORT FILMS CURATED BY THE GUARDIAN
Presented by The Guardian, AIDC & ACMI
A selection of award-winning short documentaries thoughtfully curated by The Guardian in response to AIDC’s Future Telling theme. These short films breathe life into the documentary form, revealing the challenges, perspectives and creativity that will guide us into the future.
ACMI Cinema 2, 1.30pm, Sunday 2 March. Free – booking required.
HOLLYWOODGATE
Presented by AIDC & ACMI
Unprecedented and audacious, Hollywoodgate follows Egyptian filmmaker Ibrahim Nash’at as he spends a year embedded with the Taliban, documenting as they take possession of the cache America left behind in Afghanistan and transform from a fundamentalist militia into a heavily armed military regime. Produced by Shane Boris (Fire of Love, Navalny), Hollywoodgate was shortlisted for the 2025 Best Documentary Academy Award®.
ACMI Cinema 2, 6.30pm, Sunday 2 March
THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT
Presented by AIDC & ACMI
After an unexpectedly severe sandstorm, Mongolian herders Daava and Zaya must make a once-unthinkable decision that will irrevocably change their family’s lives in the breathtaking new hybrid documentary from director Gabrielle Brady (Island of the Hungry Ghosts).
Join us in the cinema for the Victorian premiere followed by a Q&A with director Gabrielle Brady.
ACMI Cinema 1, 6.30pm, Monday 3 March
BLACK BOX DIARIES
Presented by AIDC & ACMI
Journalist Shiori Ito embarks on a courageous investigation of her own sexual assault in an improbable attempt to prosecute her high-profile offender, in this 2025 Oscar®-nominee for Best Documentary. Her quest becomes a landmark case in Japan, kicking off the #MeToo movement and exposing the country’s outdated judicial system.
ACMI Cinema 2, 6.30pm, Tuesday 4 March
SUGARCANE
Presented by AIDC & ACMI
An investigation into abuse and missing children at an Indian residential school in Canada sparks a reckoning on the nearby Sugarcane Reserve, in this epic and profoundly evocative 2025 Oscar®-nominated debut from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie.
ACMI Cinema 2, 6.30pm, Wednesday 5 March
The Documented screening program takes place before and during AIDC 2025, 1–5 March, ACMI, Melbourne / Naarm.
For more information and links to ACMI ticketing, visit our SCREENINGS program page.