Kate Jinx is a Programmer of feature films and the talks/in conversations curator at the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). She is the Founding Program Director at Golden Age Cinema, curated the All About Women in Film Festival at the Sydney Opera House, and is the co-host of weekly culture podcast See Also. A regular guest critic on ABC TV and radio, her writing has been published widely. Jinx regularly hosts public panels on film, art and culture.

S. Leo Chiang is a filmmaker based in Taipei and San Francisco. His short documentary, Island In Between, received an Oscar nomination in 2024. His previous feature doc, Our Time Machine, was nominated for an Emmy and a Gotham Award, and won ten international film festival awards. He directed two episodes of the landmark five-part PBS series Asian Americans, which won a Peabody Award in 2021. His other films include the Emmy-nominated A Village Called Versailles. Leo has served as a mentor for documentary labs and fellowship programs globally, including the Hot Docs CrossCurrent and Blue Ice Fellowships (Canada), DMZ Docs Lab (Korea), CNEX Chinese Documentary Forum (Taiwan), and AIDC (Australia). Leo is a co-founder of A-Doc (the Asian American Documentary Network), a previous co-chair of New Day Films, and a documentary branch member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Billy is the Head of Non-Scripted at Dreamchaser Entertainment, overseeing development across documentary, factual and entertainment. His documentary credits include the genre-bending ABC series The Role of a Lifetime and last year’s AIDC Award-winning This Is Going To Be Big, and the Olympics special Boiling Point: Swimming’s Greatest Rivalry. Prior to joining Dreamchaser, Billy led non-scripted development at Fremantle Australia, and previously worked with ITV Studios Australia as Head of Digital, designing and delivering innovative multi-platform content campaigns for some of the world’s biggest formats. 

Phillip Breslin is an International Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, presenter, and educator. Phil is the host of ABC’s award-winning series First Weapons, and the creator, executive producer, and host of the International Emmy-winning ABC Entertains series Built to Survive. His work also includes hosting NITV’s Lost Diamonds and National Geographic’s international series Wild Survivor. In his younger years, Phil even competed as a challenger on Channel 7’s Gladiators, showcasing his adventurous spirit. Phil was born and raised in North Queensland, Australia. Growing up surrounded by the reefs and rainforests of Cairns, Phil’s childhood adventures fostered a lifelong love for nature, culture, science, and storytelling. Before his career in filmmaking, Phil dedicated over a decade to education, working as a high school biology teacher, facilitating Indigenous land management programs, and creating educational science media. Today, Phil seamlessly blends his expertise in wildlife science, education, and visual storytelling to create compelling, accessible content that reconnects audiences with the wonders of the world around us.

Josie Mason Campbell is a passionate storyteller with a drive to create surprising and innovative content. Josie has recently produced the award-winning feature documentary, This is Going to Be Big, as well as Tony Armstrong’s Extraordinary Things. Josie is currently the Head of Programming at Eureka, a Fremantle Company, and is responsible for their Factual Entertainment slate. In her previous role as Head of Non-Scripted at the ABC and Head of Production & Development for Foxtel Josie commissioned and/or oversaw the production of a diverse slate of many popular and award-winning productions including the International Emmy award-winning Old People’s Home for Four Year Olds, multi award-winning Love on the Spectrum, Walkley award-winning Revelation as well as Logie award-winning War on Waste, Shaun Micallef’s On The Sauce, Miriam Margolyes Almost Australian,  Sam Neill’s The Pacific and Tim Winton’s Ningaloo. Josie is currently overseeing several productions including The Piano for the ABC, The Secret DNA of Us for SBS along with Grand Designs Australia, Grand Designs Transformations and Restoration Australia.  Josie created the impact team at the ABC in order to magnify the connection to documentary productions with a focus on sustainability and the stories of marginalised communities.

Gunny’s international career started with Radio Netherlands and ABU (Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union) in Malaysia for many years. Gunny also worked for various juries including Shanghai, Chicago and Rio de Janeiro film festivals and as a decision maker for TokyoDocs, IDFA and Canada’s Hot Docs. He also directed several primetime documentary series like Architecture Happiness, Our Urban City and Memories of Sten Bergman. He is currently working as the Artistic Director of EIDF (EBS International DOC Film Festival). Gunny studied architecture first but went to school again and majored in Mass Communication (Post-BA) and TV & Film Production (MA) in America. He started with the documentary program in EBS and then became one of the founding members of the EIDF (EBS International DOC Film Festival).

Citt Williams is an award-winning independent documentary producer and research-based filmmaker. Her produced films have been in competition at Cannes and screened globally by broadcasters including National Geographic, Discovery, CBC, Al Jazeera, ABC and SBS. Citt has worked for the United Nations, various international and inter-governmental bodies as well as Warner Brothers, Lonely Planet, Alliance Atlantis and MTV. An experienced documentary executive, Citt has developed, financed, produced, and shot independent documentaries in many challenging international locations – Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Indonesia, and outer Mongolia, to name a few. Citt is a collaborative specialist in science communications and endangered language production, has a PhD in Media and Communications (RMIT) and Masters degrees in Internet Social Science (Oxford University), Climate Science (University of East Anglia) and Documentary Arts (Australian Film Television and Radio School).

Merrill Sterritt, Director of IF/Then Shorts, is a Burmese-American field-builder and filmmaker advocate with 17 years of experience supporting artists. Previously as the Head of Alliances and Cultural Engagement at Cinereach, Merrill expanded Cinereach’s impact by developing methods of support for regional and community-focused film organisations and collectives. In 2010 Merrill co-founded Film Presence where they led theatrical outreach campaigns to connect films with crucial audiences outside the arthouse bubble. Merrill was named as one of DOCNYC’s inaugural New Leaders cohort and was a 2022 Rockwood Documentary Leaders Fellow.

Joel Supple has developed and delivered audio projects for SBS, BBC, ABC Radio National, ABC Rural, Radio Australia, NPR, SIBC, PAW and numerous independent podcasts. She is the Manager and Commissioning Editor of Podcasts and Digital Audio at SBS. She’s an audio producer with a strong interest in sonic forms and immersive sound, and the interaction between sound and story. Joel has worked extensively with communities in the Northern Territory, the Solomon Islands and Indonesia on creative audio and multimedia projects, created podcasts for the University of Melbourne and worked as an audio art mentor at the Artful Dodgers studios. 

Camilla Hannan is a highly regarded Australian audio producer and sound artist who, over the past 20 years, has become known for her innovative work in audio storytelling, sound design and field recording. Camilla’s work has been featured in international festivals, art galleries, podcasts and radio broadcasts. She has collaborated with filmmakers, theatre makers, visual and audio artists, contributing her expertise to diverse projects, from documentaries and installations to live performances. She is currently producer and sound designer with Guardian Australia. Camilla’s contributions to the field have earned her numerous accolades, and she continues to push the boundaries of audio production. In addition to her creative pursuits, she shares her knowledge through workshops and lectures, inspiring a new generation of sound artists and producers to listen more deeply and create more meaningfully.

Emma Roberts is an artist and producer based on Wathaurong country in regional Victoria, specialising in XR and real-time installation work. Her work includes some of the largest location-based VR installations in Australia, including Starless (2017), commissioned by City of Melbourne, and durational VR documentary Gondwana, was selected for Sundance Film Festival, SXSW and Sheffield Doc/Fest in 2022, going on to screen at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, MIT Open Doc Lab and the Science Gallery Detroit. More recently, her project Turbulence: Jamais Vu (2023) won Best Immersive at IDFA before screening at Venice Film Festival’s “Best of VR” program and launching the inaugural exhibition at Watershed UK’s new immersive venue, Undershed. Emma has spoken for MIT, Sheffield Doc/Fest, ACMI, Facebook and the Heide Museum of Modern Art, as well as mentored for workshops with CPH:LAB and the South Australian Film Commission. As a producer, she has worked at leading VR studio Atlas V (France) and acted as a mentor and workshop facilitator for programs such as CPH:LAB, AIDC’s Doc.Lab.Interact, Adelaide Film Festival’s Expand Lab, the Screenwest VR Truth-Telling initiative, and the SAFC’s Indigenous Creators Lab.

Dr. Nirma Madhoo (she/her) is a transdisciplinary XR practitioner. Nirma’s projects have exhibited at London Short Film Festival, Melbourne Museum, Berlinale EFM, SXSW, MUTEK Montréal, ISEA, Ars Electronica, and SIGGRAPH Asia. Recent activities include Venice Production Bridge, and presentations on XR technology for non-fiction contexts at AIDC and C-Doc festival. Originally trained in fashion design, Nirma branched out into moving image in 2015 and specialised in immersive filmmaking from 2019. Her projects frame stories of technology critically and speculatively, while retaining a material connection with actual contexts.