✊❤️ We are thrilled to announce the theme and first confirmed guests for AIDC 2026!

Next year, AIDC celebrates the solidarity and resilience of the documentary and factual community, inviting us to come together under the theme ✊ HOLD TRUE ✊ in order to safeguard creative practice and the principles of truth, and, importantly, to fortify a sustainable future for our filmmakers, our sector and our stories.

📢 First speakers announced:
• Aloke Devichand (UK) Head of Documentaries for Louis Theroux’s @mindhousetv
• Rita Baghdadi (USA) Filmmaker (‘Sirens’, ‘Photographer: Finding the Light’) and co-founder of @ladyandbirdfilms
• Tom McDonald (UK/USA) Executive Vice President of Content for @natgeo
• @mayadaisyhawke (NZ/USA) Editor and frequent Werner Herzog collaborator (‘Navalny’, ‘Sugarcane’, ‘Cave of Forgotten Dreams’, ‘Grizzly Man’)

💼 Plus, new & returning decision makers, including representatives from:
@amdocdocumentary | @povdocs (USA), Asian Shadows (Hong Kong), @blueantmedia / Love Nature (USA), @blueicedocs (Canada), @cargofilmdocs (USA), CAT&Docs (France), Channel 4 (UK), @dogwoof (UK), Hulu (USA), Points North Institute (USA), and many more!

✨ Other early announcement highlights include the return of the @sharkislandinstitute Feature Docs Pitch, with up to $100k in funding and the chance to participate in a new Shark Island Kangaroo Valley Development Lab. Plus, the return of the $5k AIDC Southern Light Award celebrating outstanding contribution to Australian documentary and factual, and the 11th edition of AIDC’s market centrepiece, The FACTory International Pitching Forum, presented by VicScreen.

Huge thanks to Principal Partner @wearevicscreen, Presenting Partners @acmionline and @screenaustralia, and Major Partners @abcaustralia and @sbs_australia.

Check the link in our bio for all the details.

Source image credits:
1. `Floodland` (2025) @mofa_stories | Photo by Jordan Giusti
2. Tommy “Walkabout” Jangala (Kaytetye) `The Truth About the Telegraph` (2025) @ga.ru.wa x National Communications Museum

#AIDC2026 #HOLDTRUE #documentary #factual #nonfiction #documentaryfilmmaker #documentaryfilmmaking

🏭 NEW PITCH PRIZES ANNOUNCED FOR AIDC 2026 FACTORY PITCHING FORUM 🏭

Four new international pitch prizes have been added to the AIDC 2026 FACTory International Pitching Forum prize pool:

• @sheffdocfest Networking Award 2026 FACTory Prize (UK)
• @visionsdureel 2026 FACTory Prize (Switzerland)
• @docedgeindustry NZ 2026 FACTory Prize (NZ)
• @rainafilmfestivaldistribution 2026 FACTory Prize (Finland)

Alongside these new prizes, successful FACTory applicants will also be in the running for complimentary passes, market fee waivers, and more from the previously announced:

• @sunnysidedoc 2026 FACTory Prize (France)
• Docs by the Sea 2026 FACTory Prize (Indonesia) @indocs
• @dmzdocs Industry 2026 FACTory Prize (South Korea)
@dokleipzig 2026 FACTory Prize (Germany)

🌏 AIDC’s FACTory pitch prizes open up a host of international market pathways for FACTory projects with global appeal, supplementing the opportunity to pitch projects to a world-class line-up of Australian and international buyers and funders.

Submit your project today! Applications close 5 Nov (or 9 Nov with late fee). The FACTory is proudly presented by @wearevicscreen

See link in bio to learn more and apply 🔗

📷 Director Beatrice Leong pitching THE MYTH OF MONSTERS at FACTory 2025, winner of the DMZ Docs and Doc Edge pitch prizes. Photos by @maxroux__

#AIDC2026 #TheFACTory #Documentary #DocMakers #FilmFunding #Pitching #AustralianFilm #VicScreen #DocLife #Filmmakers #IndieFilm #DocuSeries #FilmFestival

🌟 LEADING LIGHTS 2026 APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN 🌟

Calling emerging & diverse screen creatives!

Leading Lights supports emerging and early career, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, d/Deaf, disabled or neurodiverse, CALD, and regional/remote creatives to attend AIDC for the first time, and also to take part in a customised professional development program thanks to presenting partner @AFTRS.

✨ What you`ll receive:
• Complimentary Sessions Pass for AIDC 2026
• Skills Development Workshop
• Meet and Greet with industry professionals
• Pitch opportunity (for 4 projects)

Thanks to the support of industry donors for AIDC`s Leading Lights philanthropic fund, 306 emerging creatives have connected with the doc & factual industry through Leading Lights since 2018.

📅 Applications close: Sunday 7 December 2025

🔗 Link in bio to apply

#AIDC2026 #LeadingLights #Documentary #ScreenIndustry #EmergingFilmmakers #Diversity #AustralianFilm