Jesse Moss co-directed Girls State and Boys State with Amanda McBaine for Apple Original Films. Girls State premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and is currently streaming on Apple TV+. He directed War Game (with Tony Gerber), which also premiered at Sundance in January and will be released this fall. Boys State won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the 2021 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary, and was shortlisted for the Academy Award. It was released by Apple and A24. Barack Obama included Boys State on his list of favorite movies of 2020. Moss’s film The Mission, also co-directed with Amanda McBaine for National Geographic Documentary Films, premiered at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival and is streaming worldwide on Disney+. He directed The Overnighters, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, was shortlisted for the Academy Award, and released by Drafthouse Films and Netflix. He has twice been nominated by the DGA for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary. His past work with Netflix includes The Family, a 5-part series, and ‘Payday’, an episode of the series Dirty Money.

Jesse and Amanda have been filmmaking partners for twenty-five years. Recent work includes Girls State, Apple Original Films (Sundance 2024), The Mission, National Geographic (Telluride 2023), Mayor Pete, and Boys State, for Apple and A24 (2020 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize). Their film The Overnighters (2014 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize) was released by Drafthouse Films. Other work includes The Family and Payday for Netflix, The Bandit (SXSW), Speedo (PBS), and Con Man for HBO.

Richard has over 25 years of experience in the television industry, with creative and strategic leadership positions across a wide range of genres including factual, ob-doc, natural history, true crime, history, arts, social experiment, science, impact and entertainment. In January 2024 he joined Screen Australia, the Federal Government agency, as Head of Documentary. Richard is responsible for driving the strategic direction for the agency’s documentary funding programs as well as implementing broader content department priorities.

Naomi has worked in television for over 18 years. Having started her career in the UK making iconic format shows such as Wife Swap, Four In A Bed and First Dates she quickly moved over to factual documentary making. In 2010 she directed the 6-part documentary series My Family’s Crazy Gap Year which landed her in Australia, and she has been here ever since. In recent times Naomi has worked across factual documentary series including Making Families Happy (ABC), Revolution School (ABC), Date My Race (SBS) and Love On The Spectrum (ABC and Netflix) for which she won an Emmy. For the past three years Naomi has been an executive producer across Channel 10’s factual slate.

Hollie is a cultural strategist with a passion for working alongside and for documentary filmmakers to unlock the potential of their stories for change. At Doc Society, Hollie develops funds, convenings, networks and initiatives to strengthen the field. She has worked as a documentary director and impact producer and her films have screened in over 35 countries including at IDFA, CPH:DOX, Hot Docs, the UN Human Rights Council and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia. Hollie currently serves on the Board of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the Castlemaine Documentary Festival (CDoc).

Dr. Chadden Hunter is a Queensland filmmaker who has spent much of the last 20 years working alongside Sir David Attenborough on the world’s most seminal and loved nature documentaries.  After undergraduate studies at UQ he completed a PhD on gelada baboons in Ethiopia then went on to work with the BBC, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, filming everything from tribal ceremonies in Africa to snow leopards in Pakistan. His television series, including Planet Earth 1 and 2, Wild Arabia, Frozen Planet and Seven Worlds One Planet have won over 20 Emmy and BAFTA awards.  Now a full-time Executive Producer with Wildbear Entertainment in Brisbane, his latest film The Platypus Guardian recently aired on the ABC, Amazon and Apple TV.

First Nations filmmaker, Dena Curtis is a producer, writer and director. Throughout her career, Dena has worked at National Indigenous Television as a Senior Editor and Promo Producer, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation as the Series Producer of Message Stick then later a Commissioning Editor for Indigenous, overseeing development and production on The Darkside, Yagan, 88, Buckskin, The Redfern Story, Outside Chance and Wild Kitchen. Her directing credits include award-winning short films Hush, Jacob and Nan and a Whole Lot of Trouble. Comedy series, 8MMM Aboriginal Radio, documentary series, Shadow Trackers, Colour Theory Underground, children’s series, Thalu and two episodes of ABC’s factual series Back to Nature. Most recently Dena directed a chapter of the anthology feature We Are Still Here and feature length documentary A League of Her Own. Her producing credits include Logie-nominated children’s television series, Grace Beside Me, short films Walters Ghost and Shed and documentaries Ella, Shadow Trackers and Belonging. Dena co-produced Firebite for See-Saw Films/AMC Network and was Producer on ABC’s First Weapons, and Executive Producer for Rebel with a Cause – a 4x1hr documentary series for NITV.

Randall Wood has 30 years’ experience writing, directing, and shooting compelling documentaries. Randall is founder of Storyland Productions, a Queensland-based production company dedicated to making media for the heart and mind. Randall Wood’s films have screened across the globe on networks including PBS, ABC, BBC, National Geographic, ZDF, ARTE, PTS, SBS and in cinemas. Storyland’s latest release is award-winning film Flyways, a global feature about migratory birds for cinema and television release. Outstanding Excellence, Nature Without Borders International Film Festival Finalist for WCSFP Best Natural History Program / Content – Long Format, Best Music in a Documentary Screen Music Awards, 2023.

Kim Ingles is a documentary filmmaker, impact producer and story facilitator, with a focus on amplifying the stories and solutions needed to address social inequity, climate and environmental justice issues. For the past few years, she has been working on the Australian feature impact documentaries 2040, The Australian Dream, Rachel’s Farm, and on the short film Regenerating Australia. Her most recent short film, The Oyster Gardener, premiered at the Sydney Film Festival and is currently streaming on ABC iView with an impact campaign underway. She is the Digital Creative Lead at Regen Studios and is about to release her newest short film, The Art Side of the Moon, with the Sunny Coast Showdown. 

David Cook is a First Nations writer, director, producer, and actor from Brisbane. Over the past five years, Cook has built a versatile career in the film industry, gaining experience in acting, crew roles, writing, directing, and producing. Cook’s debut feature film, Heart of the Man, which he wrote, produced, and directed, has recently completed post-production and secured distribution in Australia and New Zealand. In addition to feature films, Cook has garnered recognition and numerous accolades for his short documentary Skate or Cry. His feature documentary, Frontline Rangers, is currently in development with support from Screen Queensland. In 2024, Cook attended the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) in Melbourne, where he won two pitching prizes as part of The FACTory – New Talent Showcase. These accolades led to invitations to showcase his feature documentary pitch for Frontline Rangers at Sunny Side of the Doc in France and Doc Edge in New Zealand. Through his company, New Dream Productions, David Cook continues to develop various exciting projects. He remains dedicated to expanding his creative growth and making meaningful contributions to the wider screen industry.

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 2023. 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 Center for the Moving Image, Festival Director of the REAL: Life on Film festival and board member of the National Film and Sound Archive.

Lauren is an avid non-fiction fan and film industry professional with extensive experience across programming, international sales and distribution both within Australia and overseas. Beginning her career in film festival programming, Lauren most notably held the role of Program Director at the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival, as well as programming for the Shadow Electric Outdoor Cinema and running her own film residency at state-of-the-art performance space, Howler. She then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark for three years to work with International Sales Agent LevelK as their Sales & Acquisitions Manager, handling both world sales for their slate and specialising in documentary acquisitions. During her time in the Nordics, Lauren was a tutor for the prestigious international documentary program Dok.incubator, selected as part of the ‘Rising Stars of Nordic Sales and Distributors’ for the 2020 Helsinki International Film Festival and was a member of the Danish Film Academy. Upon her return to Australia, Lauren worked in distribution for Umbrella Entertainment, handling both the monthly digital releases and world sales of classic Australian cinema. Lauren was the former Conference Programmer of AIDC in 2022 and is thrilled to be continuing her work supporting the development of dynamic Australian non-fiction stories and bringing them to global audiences in her role as Industry Manager.