STAFF & BOARD

MEET THE THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY CONFERENCE

Management Team

NATASHA GADD
CEO / CREATIVE DIRECTOR

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 2024. 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 Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Festival Director of the REAL: Life on Film festival and board member of the National Film and Sound Archive.

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ALEX CASTRO
GENERAL MANAGER

Alex has worked in Program, Event, Marketing and General Manager roles with Open Channel Melbourne International Film Festival, Twentieth Century Fox, Cinema Nova, Lumiere Cinemas, and most recently, Palace Cinemas. He is the founder of Melbourne Filmoteca: Spanish, Latin American & Portuguese Film Group; as well as the Melbourne Latin American Film Festival (2004-2007).

At Open Channel he developed a suite of professional and project development programs for emerging screen practitioners including the inaugural Generation Next Documentary Conference, regular discussion panels and networking sessions; and production initiatives delivered in collaboration with Screen Australia, Film Victoria, local government, philanthropic and other partners.

A Canberra native, Alex completed a Bachelor of Arts (Art History & Curatorship) at the Australian National University, before moving to Melbourne and completing Honours in Cinema Studies at La Trobe University.

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Lauren Valmadre
INDUSTRY MANAGER

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.

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Chris Harms
Marketing & Communications Manager

Chris is a media, communications and marketing professional with extensive experience in the media, arts and not-for-profit sectors. As Marketing & Communications Manager for AIDC, he is responsible for brand management, audience development, market positioning, communications strategy and APAC region engagement. He has also worked as Industry Programmer and CrossCurrents International Fund assessor for the Hot Docs Industry conference in Toronto, Canada, and has research interests in documentary marketplace and pitching forum dynamics. His prior experience includes three years as Marketing Manager for the Melbourne Fringe Festival, a tenure that included the event’s most successful staging in 30 years in 2014, teaching in arts and creative management for the University of Melbourne, editing a weekly music, arts, and film magazine, and freelancing in music and entertainment marketing. He studied screen production and writing at Griffith University and QUT – resulting in a short documentary about the auto towing industry and a Channel [V] Clip of the Week music video – and holds a Master of Global Media Communication degree from the University of Melbourne.

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2026 Event Staff

Alice McShane
CONFERENCE PROGRAMMER

Alice McShane is a seasoned film curator who returns to AIDC after serving on the screen programming team for SXSW Sydney 2024.  She is also a film critic who presents on 3RRR’s screen show Primal Screen. She came to AIDC from the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF), where she was Program Manager from 2019 until 2022. She has worked as a grant assessor with the International Documentary Association (IDA), and a guest manager and film panellist the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF). She has worked with organisations like the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI), Common Room Productions, Moving Story Entertainment, Palace Cinemas, and more. She is also currently a board member of the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF).

Alice has a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Screen Studies from the University of Melbourne, and is an occasional guest lecturer there. She is a passionate advocate for the power of nonfiction storytelling and ethical filmmaking, and is thrilled to be returning to the AIDC team as Conference Programmer. She is excited to be collaborating with industry leaders to champion the sector, celebrate craft, and pay tribute to the change-making power of storytelling.

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Board of Directors

Sarah Thornton
CO-CHAIR

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 and Aussie 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.

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PAUL WIEGARD
CO-CHAIR

Paul Wiegard co-founded Madman Entertainment, a leading independent distribution and rights management company for film and television with offices in Melbourne, Auckland & Berlin, in 1996. Madman operates an integrated business structure established on four key commercial pillars: Theatrical Distribution, Physical Media (DVD & Blu Ray), Digital and Ancillary sales. It has 80-plus staff and a turnover of $45 million per annum. Among his many achievements, Paul has executive produced 20+ feature and documentary films. Additionally he is responsible for establishing DocPlay, a dedicated documentary streaming VoD platform.

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Marco Angele
SECRETARY

Marco is a Principal at Marshalls + Dent + Wilmoth lawyers, specialising in commercial, media and entertainment law. His expertise includes commercial contracting and procurement, transactions, fundraising and intellectual property. Marco advises clients predominantly from the technology, media and entertainment industries. Recently, he has acted for leading television and film production companies, media content distributors, festivals and hospitality venues.

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MATT CARTER
TREASURER

Matt is Managing Partner of Above The Line Accounting, a Chartered Accounting firm specialising in the Media and Entertainment industry that works exclusively with producers and production companies and specialise in the QAPE calculation for the Producer Offset. An experienced Chartered Accountant with 30 years of Chartered and Commercial experience, Matt has worked for Big 4 firms KPMG and Deloitte in business services and audit. With a passion for  the creative industries, he holds a Masters in Producing and a Graduate Diploma in Screen Business from the Australian Film, Television & Radio School. As a producer, Matt has Executive and Associate produced several feature films, TV series, and more than 20 short films. He has worked on hundreds of productions as production accountant, post production accountant and QAPE Accountant, including feature films, television series, web and virtual reality series.

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ANDREW ARBUTHNOT

Andrew is an award-winning Creative Producer with 15+ years’ experience in film and television production. Andrew recently returned to producing after working as Investment / Development Manager, Documentary at Screen Australia. Previously, Andrew worked for broadcasters and production companies including SBS Television, BBC, Channel 4, PolyGram Films, Nickelodeon, Foxtel, Endemol and Essential Media & Entertainment where he gained invaluable experience in development, production, marketing and distribution. As a Producer of both drama and documentary he has experience in managing and guiding projects and creative teams from development to delivery and marketing.

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Kelrick Martin

Kelrick is a Ngarluma man from Broome WA, and in 1998 was the inaugural presenter of ABC TV’s Message Stick. In 2002 he completed his Masters in Documentary Writing and Directing at AFTRS, and in 2007 returned to WA to become NITV’s Commissioning Editor. He formed Spear Point Productions in 2010 – credits include the multiple 2015 AACTA Award nominee Prison Songs. Kelrick was also the Indigenous Manager for Screenwest before joining the ABC as Head of Indigenous in 2016. His commissions at ABC include Black Comedy, Maralinga Tjarutja, and popular award-winning drama Total Control.

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HOLLIE FIFER

Hollie is currently the Director of Australian Programs at Doc Society and Director of the arts not-for-profit Schoolhouse Studios in Melbourne.

As a documentary filmmaker, Hollie’s films have screened at festivals and broadcasted within Australia and internationally. The Opposition is Hollie’s debut feature documentary produced by Media Stockade that world premiered at Hot Docs and IDFA in 2016 before winning the Grand Prize at FIFO, screening at the UN Human Rights Council, winning Best Documentary Feature at the Oz Flix Independent Film Awards and screening in over 35 countries. Hollie’s latest short film Unbalanced recently premiered on Australian newspapers The Age/Sydney Morning Herald’s Vox Dox series.

Hollie on the Board of the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) and the Castlemaine Documentary Festival (CDoc). In her previous work she has been a freelance tutor in Documentary Directing at NIDA and AFTRS, Co-Director of The Artists Guild, selected for MECCA Shark Island M-Power Program and Doc Society’s Global Impact Producers Squad.

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Paul Williams

Paul Damien Williams is the Documentary Executive at Screenwest, the screen industry agency for Western Australia, where he oversees development and production of a slate of great diversity including titles Aussie Gold Hunters Hunters (DISCOVERY), the Every Family Has a Secret series (SBS) and Ningaloo (ABC). He is also responsible for initiatives for the emerging sector. As a filmmaker Williams wrote and directed the critically acclaimed feature-length documentary Gurrumul about the blind, Indigenous singer Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. Gurrumul won the Asia Pacific Screen Academy Best Feature Documentary, the AACTA Best Feature Documentary, and the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Best Direction in a Feature Documentary, among many other festival, guild and critical awards. With over 20 years in the industry, Williams brings his experience as an editor, writer, director and producer to the AIDC Board.

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Marissa McDowell

Marissa is a Wiradjuri woman from Cowra New South Wales, with 20 years’ experience working in the First Nation multi-media storytelling space. During her time at NITV as Head of Commissions for SBS, she developed and commissioned stories for programming that were inclusive across factual, scripted, children’s and digital. Throughout her career, Marissa has worked for GIO Stadium Canberra in live production for Rugby League and Union and ABC in News and Radio. She is the Chairperson for Us Mob Writers, a member on the Gender Matters Taskforce, the Minister’s Creative Council and artsACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Network. She has a Master of Arts Screen Business and Leadership from the Australian Film Television and Radio School (AFTRS) a Bachelor of Arts Honours from the University of Canberra (UC) and Graduate Certificate in Wiradjuri Language, Culture and Heritage at Charles Sturt University (CSU).

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