Camilla Mazzaferro began her career at PWC and RadicalMedia, producing a number of award-winning commercial campaigns, music videos and short films. Most recently she produced feature documentaries My Sister Liv (2022 Karlovy Vary and Doc NYC), A Fire Inside (2021 Sydney Film Festival), Machine (2019 Melbourne International Film Festival) and the Netflix Original Chef’s Table. Other projects include Homebodies (SXSW 2016), Ian Thorpe: The Swimmer and Girls Can’t Surf (2021 Tribeca Film Festival). 

Slava Leontyev is a first-time director born into a family of biologists in Ukraine. Merging his love of nature and art, Leontyev has spent his life studying painting, photography, graphic design and art theory. Alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Anya Stasenko, Leontyev now creates the porcelain sculptures featured in Porcelain War. He is also a former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces and a highly regarded weapons instructor for civilians who are currently defending their country against Russian aggression.

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, 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.

Bernadine Lim is a seasoned media executive and creative producer who understands both the art and business of impactful factual storytelling. Bernadine is Senior Commissioning Editor of Factual at SBS Australia. Formerly, she was Head of Documentary at Screen Australia and Executive Producer of award-winning SBS Dateline. She has several awards including Gold and Silver from the New York Festivals and an Australian Academy Cinema Television Arts nomination for Best Direction in a Documentary.

Paul Wiegard is CEO & Co-Founder of Madman Entertainment. Paul has executive-produced 40+ feature and documentary films.  Established streaming VOD platform DocPlay, a curated documentary platform. Graduate of the AFTRS Master of Screen Art and Business. Currently, President – Australian Independent Distributors Association (AIDA), Board Member of Screenrights, Australian Centre of The Moving Image (ACMI) and Co-Chair of Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC).

Walkley Award-winning documentarian Patrick Abboud founded Only Human Productions and is a creative partner in Dreamchaser Studios, led by Carl Fennessy and Hugh Marks. As a director, writer, presenter, and producer, Patrick’s work traverses documentary, factual series, immersive installation, investigative journalism and more recently scripted drama. His 2025/26 documentary project RISE is currently in pre-production. Patricks’s 2024 groundbreaking personal film, Gayrabia’for ABC TV was Highly Commended for Best Direction in Documentary at the Australian Directors Guild Awards (ADG) and was featured on Gogglebox. Patrick’s 2023 film Kids Raising Kids for SBS documentary strand Australia Uncovered, was nominated for Best Documentary at AIDC and Best Direction at the ADG Awards. Patrick was awarded 2023 Freelance Journalist of the Year by the Walkley Foundation and LGBTQ+ Media Disruptor of the Year. He is a 2-time Walkley winner, 3-time winner at the New York Festivals TV & Radio Awards, 4-time winner at the Australian Podcast Awards, a recipient of the SXSW Innovation Award. Patrick is the co-creator of the Audible/ Amazon genre bending queer true crime podcast, The Greatest Menace: Inside The Gay Prison Experiment. The series has won 22 international awards including Podcast of the Year in the UK and Best True Crime series in the USA. The podcast is now optioned for a scripted series adaptation and is currently in development.

Ivan O’Mahoney is the Founder of In Films, the company behind Unbreakable – The Jelena Dokic Story (Roadshow Films), Folau (ABC), The Whiteley Art Scandal (ABC), Bloodguilt (Audible), Revelation (ABC), Hitting Home (ABC), Unseen Skies (Participant Media), Caged (SBS) and The Queen & Zak Grieve (Foxtel). Films that Ivan produced and/or directed have won three Rose D’Or Awards, three AACTAs, three Walkleys, a Logie, two ADGs, two Screen Producer Award, the Japan Prize, the Prix Europa, a Golden Nymph, the Robert F Kennedy Journalism Award and the Amnesty International Media Award. Other acclaimed projects include Baghdad High (HBO); How To Plan a Revolution (BBC) and Surviving Hunger (CNN). His projects have screened at major festivals including Tribeca Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest, HotDocs, Doxa & CPH:DOX).

John is an acclaimed writer, director and producer across film and theatre and the Creative Director of Brown Cabs. In film, he has written and directed: Still We Rise (2023 AIDC Best Documentary / Factual Single, 2023 ADG Award for Best Direction); Off Country (2022 ADG Award for Best Direction, MIFF); Kutcha’s Koorioke (NITV); Katele (2023 Flickerfest – Best Australian Short Film, Melbourne International Film Festival – Best Australian Short Film), Water (Adelaide FF, MIFF), Out of Range (MIFF). He produced Spear (TIFF) and the chapter Sand for The Turning (MIFF, Berlinale) and The Warriors (ABC). His theatre writing credits include The Return (2023 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Drama), Heart is a Wasteland and Black Ties. John received an ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Image) Commission to create multi-channel installation Canopy.  John is also a Board Director of Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Danielle Ah Boo is a proud Torres Strait Islander woman, born and raised on Thursday Island. Ms Ah Boo is Head of Screen Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Unit, a leadership role to uplift First Nations voices across the state’s screen industry. Ms Ah Boo has previously worked in production for First Nations-founded agency Carbon Creative and more recently as a financial accountant with Arrow Energy. She also serves as Treasurer of Reconciliation Queensland. Her role at Screen Queensland is to elevate awareness of the cultural significance of First Nations storytelling and amplifying First Nations voices in the screen industry, as truth-telling holds immense significance in shaping our nations’s history.

Ian is an experienced producer, director, and manager of teams in the creative production of network broadcast, online, and streaming content. He joined Screen Queensland after a career in the UK, as well as working on projects for US and Australian broadcasters. His Australian credits include the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent and Four Corners, as well as work for SBS and Audible Australia. His international credits include the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, ITN, Sky, Discovery, National Geographic, PBS and HGTV. At Screen Queensland, Ian has supported feature documentaries including WildBear’s upcoming Joh: The Last King of Queensland, Glass Engine’s Hinckley: I Shot The President and Wes Greene’s The Gold; as well as factual series Onion TV’s The Rise of the Dolphins: Season 2025,  Seven’s Treasure Hunters Down Under and Aussie Truck Rehab.

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. She then moved to Copenhagen, Denmark 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 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 before embarking on her current role as Industry Manager, continuing her work supporting the development of dynamic Australian non-fiction stories and bringing them to global audiences.