Diane Weyermann is responsible for the documentary feature film and television slate of Participant, a company dedicated to storytelling that inspires and accelerates social change. In addition to the upcoming films Sing me a Song, Slay the Dragon and Watson, Participant’s recent documentary projects include American Factory, Aquarela, America to Me, RBG, The Price of Free, Foster, Far From the Tree, Human Flow and An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power. Previous releases include the Oscar®-winning films CitizenFour and An Inconvenient Truth, as well as Oscar®-nominees The Look of Silence, The Square and Food, Inc. Prior to joining Participant in 2005, Weyermann was the director of the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program where she was responsible for the Sundance Documentary Fund – a program supporting documentary films dealing with contemporary human rights, social justice, civil liberties, and freedom of expression from around the world.

Shane Smith is director of programming at Hot Docs, North America’s largest festival and market for documentary film. Smith previously worked at the Toronto International Film Festival as director of special projects and director of public programs. Prior to TIFF he worked as director of programming at Channel Zero Inc, director of the CFC Worldwide Short Film Festival, short film programmer for Sundance Film Festival and programming director for Inside Out LGBT Film Festival. Smith has served on juries or participated on panels at events around the world including Sundance, Cannes, TIFF, Sheffield Doc Fest, DocNYC, IDA, DMZ Docs, IDFA, Tokyo Docs, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television, Guadalajara International Film Festival and Bangkok International Film Festival.

Andrew Farrell is the head of factual at CJZ productions with 35 years experience in the media. As a writer and producer in Australia his shows have aired on all commercial networks and the ABC. He has also worked as a writer, series producer and executive producer on international series and documentaries such as Mythbusters and Shark Island for Discovery. As head of factual at CJZ he has been directly involved in the development and production of series for Foxtel, Seven and SBS, and was the executive producer of AACTA-nominated feature documentary Jimmy Barnes – Working Class Boy and Logie Award-winning Foxtel series Ron Iddles: The Good Cop.

Elissa currently runs Foxtel’s unscripted development slate with its focus on brand-defining content for History, Crime & Investigation and Lifestyle. In her role she also develops and produces shows in-house, works closely with external producers to co-develop new productions, as well as executive produces across a slate of external productions. In 2019 Elissa created and produced two podcast series to support the launch of Foxtel’s major factual series. In 2017 Elissa took a 15-month hiatus to executive produce a series she created and developed with her company SkinnyDip Pictures: Aussie Inventions That Changed the World. This original history series aired in June 2019 and broke numerous records including delivering the History Channel its highest channel share on the platform since 2009. 

Dean Gibson is an Aboriginal filmmaker with over 12 years’ experience in creating, writing, directing, editing and producing content. His work has screened on ABC3, ABC1, SBS and NITV, and includes children’s television, documentary and drama. In the documentary space Dean was the writer and director of Wik vs Queensland, which world-premiered at the 2018 Sydney International Film Festival. The film went on to win the 2018 ATOM Award for Best History Documentary and the Best Long Documentary at the 2018 First Nations Media Awards. Dean also co-directed the 50-minute feature documentary A War of Hope, which screened on NITV on ANZAC Day. He also created and directed the ABC documentary From the Ashes, following the Australian Indigenous cricket team as they toured the UK and discovered the history of Aboriginal cricket in Australia.

Maya is a director with a focus on social justice. Her career includes award-winning short documentaries Two, which screened at Slamdance, and Growing Up Gayby for ABC’s Opening Shot. In 2015 she made Gayby Baby with Charlotte Mars, which screened at festivals internationally including Hot Docs, London BFI, Doc NYC and Dok Leipzig. It was selected for GoodPitch² Australia 2014, broke cinema-on-demand records, was nominated for an AACTA Award and an AWGIE, and won Best Documentary at the ATOM awards. The film sparked a national debate after it was banned from being screened in Australian schools and was significant in the movement for marriage and adoption equality in Australia. Her new feature documentary, In My Blood It Runs, was selected for GoodPitch Australia and the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund. It premiered at Hot Docs 2019 and will be released theatrically in February 2020.