high-level buyers representing international organisations
2025 Showroom Decision Makers
Shelley Quinn Factual Commissioner, Warner Bros. Discovery (NZ)
Shelley Quinn is a factual commissioner at Warner Bros. Discovery ANZ, responsible for commissioning factual and entertainment content for local platforms ThreeNow and THREE. Before joining the commissioning team at WBD, Shelley worked as a producer both in NZ and the UK, and has extensive experience in factual, entertainment and comedy production and development.
Pamela Martínez CEO/Managing Director, Limonero Films (ESP)
Pamela launched Limonero Films in 2016, with the intention to work on projects she feels passionate about, with people she likes. She has degrees in Art History and Journalism, and a master’s in film history and visual Media from Birkbeck University in London. With more than two decades of experience in media sales, she has forged relationships with all the important players in the industry. She enjoys playing the guitar and singing, circus trapeze, cinema and traveling. Some of her favourite titles in the catalogue are Lovesick, the Inside the Storm series, and Azor Producciones´ wildlife titles.
Sudeep Sharma Programmer, Sundance Film Festival (USA)
Sudeep Sharma is a Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival focusing on documentary feature films. He has worked in film programming at an eclectic range of organizations and served on numerous juries around the world. Originally from New Jersey, he holds a PhD in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA and has taught film and television courses at universities throughout Southern California where he lives.
Madonna Benjamin Senior Commissioning Editor, Documentaries & Factual Entertainment, Channel 4 (UK)
Madonna Benjamin is Senior Commissioning Editor for Channel 4 Documentaries and Factual Entertainment, responsible for commissioning and delivering original factual series.
Most recently she co-commissioned Go Back To Where You Came From (SBS format adapted for the UK) and first series of award-winning constructed factual formats The Piano, Banged Up and The Dog House. Previous commissions include First Dates, Hunted and 24 Hours in A&E. Prior to joining Channel 4, Madonna was an executive producer and documentary director with independent production companies in the UK. She grew up in Rockhampton, Queensland and is delighted to be in Australia for AIDC.
Nic Meloney Executive in Charge of Production, Factual & Documentary, CBC Unscripted (CAN)
Nic Meloney is a mixed Wolastoqi/Canadian journalist and Executive in Charge of Production with CBC Unscripted. Working closely with independent creators from Inuit, Métis and First Nations communities (as well as non-Indigenous) in documentary and factual productions, he’s also an advisor to CBC/Radio-Canada’s new National Indigenous Office and is part of the Indigenous team leading the work on CBC/Radio-Canada’s National Indigenous Strategy. In his roles with CBC Unscripted’s documentary and factual entertainment units, Nic’s carried storytelling ventures of all shapes and sizes – from audio documentary and podcasts, to short films and premium limited documentary series. Previously, he worked as a journalist, writer, and video producer with CBC Nova Scotia and CBC Indigenous. His work has taken him to Indigenous communities across the country for the production and development of digital video features and television news documentaries, as well as syndicated, local and national news content. A member of Woodstock First Nation in Wolastokuk (New Brunswick) and a proud Cape Bretoner, he currently lives and works in Kjipuktuk (Halifax, Nova Scotia).
Laura Miret Commissioning Editor, ARTE France (FRA)
Laura Miret is a commissioning editor in the Specialist Factual Unit at ARTE FRANCE, based in Paris. She commissions natural history, ecology and human-interest programs for linear television and the arte.tv streaming platform. Before joining ARTE, she was a freelance producer, writer and director for 10 years, working mostly for France Television’s scientific documentary series Le Monde de Jamy.
Robert Y Chang Co-Producer POV, American Documentary | POV (USA)
Robert Y. Chang is the Co-Producer of POV. He serves as juror, screener, programmer, panelist, and reviewer for a range of film festivals, foundations, and funders of the arts. Robert received his PhD in Cultural Anthropology with research on the intersection of religion and media. As a filmmaker, Robert’s work has screened worldwide and is distributed by Documentary Educational Resources (DER). He is a member of the PGA, the Television Academy, and NLGJA.
Debra Zimmerman Executive Director, Women Make Movies (USA)
Debra Zimmerman is the Executive Director of Women Make Movies, a NY non-profit social enterprise that has been supporting women filmmakers with distribution and production assistance of their independent films since 1972. For the last 20 years filmmakers from WMM’s programs have won or been nominated for Academy Awards, including last year’s To Kill a Tiger. Zimmerman is in great demand around the world as a jury member, speaker, panelist and mentor. She is on the board and selection committees for numerous organizations including Cinema Tropical and Docs Barcelona. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including NY Women in Film and Television’s Changemaker Award and Hot Doc’s Doc Mogul Award, given to those who have made an essential contribution to the creative vitality of the documentary industry, both in his or her home country and abroad. She is a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences.
Theresa Navarro Co-Director & COO, Catapult Film Fund (USA)
Theresa Navarro is Co-Director and COO at Catapult Film Fund, a San Francisco-based nonprofit providing early-stage support for independent documentaries.
Theresa is a Pinay cultural worker and working mama whose career spans two decades. Previously, Theresa was vice president of external affairs at American Documentary, the producer of iconic PBS series POV. An Independent Spirit Award-nominated producer, her credits include Peabody Award-winning anthology series America Reframed and sci-fi feature Advantageous, winner of the special jury prize at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
Sarah Thornton Head of Unscripted, Paramount ANZ (AUS)
Sarah Thornton is Head of Unscripted for Paramount ANZ responsible for executive producing Network 10 and Paramount+ shows such as The Dog House Australia, Dogs Behaving (Very) Badly, Taskmaster Australia, MasterChef Australia, Dessert Masters andAussie Shore. Sarah has been with Paramount ANZ since 2019. Sarah has over two decades of experience in programming including over 15 years in the UK developing formats such as Say Yes to the Dress, First Dates, Snog Marry Avoid, Don’t Tell the Bride, Top Chef, Bake Off,and Kitchen Nightmares. Sarah’s shows have been nominated for BAFTAs and won both Royal Television Society and Rose D’Or awards. Sarah began her career in News and Current Affairs at the Nine Network.
Natsu Kawakami is a producer at NHK’s ‘World Documentary’, where she curates films and coordinates co-production projects for the strand’s yearly line-up of roughly 100 titles. In 2021, she was also the director for the footage shot in Japan for a 4K co-production series Science and Sports. Prior to joining NHK, she directed and produced factual content for NHK and other Japanese broadcasters as an independent filmmaker.
Emile Guertin Senior Producer, Al Jazeera English (MYS)
Based in Al Jazeera’s Malaysia bureau, Emile commissions and oversees 25 min docs in the Asia-Pacific region for the ‘Witness’ documentary strand. Hailing from a documentary film-making background, Emile has an MA from the National Film & Television School in the UK. He has lived in Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam and has spent almost 15 years working across international documentary in the Southeast Asia region. Emile currently lives in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Alexandra Gilbert Head of Content, Prime Video Australia and New Zealand (AUS)
As Head of Content, Ally leads local content efforts and is responsible for the design and execution of Prime Video’s local content slate, including TV and film licensing, for the Prime Video service in Australia and New Zealand. Ally joined Amazon in September 2016 as legal counsel supporting Prime Video in the US before moving on to other roles covering international expansion of the Prime Video Channels business, including leading the content acquisition function for the launch of Prime Video Channels in Australia. Prior to Amazon, Ally spent 7 years as a lawyer with Bauer Media (now Are Media) and in private practice. She holds a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Monash, and currently resides in Melbourne, Australia.
Kazz Basma HEAD OF SALES AND ACQUISITIONS, SIDEWAYS FILM (UK)
Kazz runs Sideways Film, a documentary and factual sales agency set up in 2010, with offices in London and Barcelona. Kazz established Sideways Film – a world documentary sales agency – in 2010, and is regularly invited as an expert to various festivals, training programs and juries. The company also occasionally partners at the project stage to develop and close budgets.