Chai Vasarhelyi is an Academy® Award-winning filmmaker with a storied history of critically acclaimed films. In 2019, she, along with co-director and co-producer Jimmy Chin, was awarded the Academy® Award and a BAFTA for Best Documentary Feature for Free Solo, an intimate, unflinching portrait of rock climber Alex Honnold. The film also received seven Emmy® Awards. In 2023, she co-directed her first scripted feature, Nyad, for Netflix, which saw both stars Annette Bening and Jodie Foster receive Academy Award nominations. More recently, Vasarhelyi was honoured with a Peabody Award and a News & Documentary Emmy Award for co-directing and producing the acclaimed National Geographic series Photographer. In the fall of 2025, she had two new feature documentaries premiere for National Geographic Documentary Films – Love+War, on acclaimed war photographer Lynsey Addario, and Lost in the Jungle, on the incredible true story of four children who survived a plane crash in the Colombian jungle. Lost in the Jungle went on to win the Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary Emmy that year. In 2021, she co-directed the BAFTA and DGA-nominated documentary The Rescue, chronicling the enthralling, against-all-odds story that transfixed the world in 2018: the daring rescue of twelve boys and their coach from deep inside a flooded cave in northern Thailand. Other projects include Return to Space, about SpaceX and NASA’s first joint spaceflight, which reached the Top 10 on Netflix’s most-watched films list, and the National Geographic series Edge of the Unknown. Her feature Meru won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2015 and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2016. Vasarhelyi’s other films as director include Incorruptible (Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award, 2016); Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love (Oscilloscope, 2009), which premiered at the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals; A Normal Life (Tribeca Film Festival, Best Documentary, 2003); and Touba (SXSW, Special Jury Prize for Best Cinematography, 2013). Vasarhelyi has also directed two New York Times Op-Docs, two episodes of Netflix’s nonfiction design series Abstract, and two episodes of ESPN’s nonfiction series Enhanced. She has received grants from the Sundance Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bertha Britdoc, and the National Endowment for the Arts. She is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature from Princeton University. Vasarhelyi lives in New York City with her children, her daughter Marina and her son James.

Ivan O’Mahoney is the Founder of In Films, the company behind Sentient (Madman Entertainment), 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 Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest, HotDocs, Doxa & CPH:DOX).

Sally has a long track record of story development and producing across many genres and platforms. Appointed as an Investment and Development Manager, Documentary for Screen Australia in December 2021, she oversees a slate of factual content in development and production. Recent projects as Investment Manager include Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator; The People vs Robodebt; The Wolves Always Come at Night; Revealed: Renee Gracie; Shipwreck Hunters and Mockbuster among many others. Previously, she worked at the ABC as an Executive Producer, overseeing the development, production and delivery of a slate of Arts projects. Previously, she was Development Manager for Arts, Comedy, Entertainment and Factual at ABC. Before that, she worked in the scripted narrative space in development and production. 

As a Commissioning Editor for ABC, Stephen is passionate about telling stories with real world impact. Previously an award-winning filmmaker, Stephen has brought expertise in both high-end program-making and game-changing impact campaigns to his commissioning role at the ABC with great success. Recent commissions include: Judgement: Cases That Changed Australia, Rolf Harris: Primetime Predator and Ages of Ice.

Farhad is the Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at Changer, where he leads the development and execution of the company’s global programs in collaboration with partners like YouTube. He has worked with some of the world’s most successful creators, helping them accelerate channel growth, diversify revenue streams and unlock the full potential of their audiences.

Allan Clarke is a multi award winning Muruwari and Gomeroi filmmaker, investigative journalist and writer whose work has significantly reshaped the representation of Indigenous people and issues in the media. With a career dedicated to giving agency to Indigenous voices through powerful storytelling, Allan has produced some of Australia’s most impactful non fiction content. His notable work includes the acclaimed two part television series and podcast Blood on the Tracks for the ABC, and the feature documentaries The Bowraville Murders and The Dark Emu Story. The latter, a revelatory exploration of Indigenous culture pre colonisation, sparked a vital national discourse and received numerous accolades for its contribution to Australian history.

Beyond documentary, Allan is an accomplished screenwriter whose work spans diverse genres and platforms. He was the writer for the television series The School That Tried To End Racism, the feature documentary Rose Gold, and the television series The Last Goodbye with Ray Martin. Notably, Allan won a prestigious AWGIE Award from the Australian Writers’ Guild for his screenplay on the television drama Invisible Boys, further cementing his reputation as a versatile and leading voice in Australian screenwriting.

Allan’s excellence in storytelling has been recognised with two Australian Walkley Awards for Excellence in Journalism, the United Nations Media Peace Prize, and the 1er prix spécial du jury at FIFO 2022. In 2018, the NSW Parliament formally recognised his pursuit of justice for Aboriginal victims of crime through his investigative work.

Stephanie King is a filmmaker, impact producer and advocate working on unceded Gadigal lands.

Her films have screened and been awarded at international festivals, released in cinemas nationally, and shown on SBS, NITV, Nine, Al Jazeera, The Guardian and others. She is a former recipient of Screen Australia’s Enterprise People and fellow with UnionDocs, New York. As an impact producer, strategist or advisor, Stephanie has worked on over 20 productions, including Delikado, Incarceration Nation, Trailblazers, Climate Changers and Guided By Horses.

In her role as Impact Director at Documentary Australia, Stephanie leads impact and filmmaker programs, assesses applications for fiscal sponsorship and supports sector advocacy. She is interested in documentaries that align with Documentary Australia’s issue areas – environment, First Nations, health and wellbeing, human rights and social justice, women and girls, youth and education, and the arts. As the lead on the new Women’s Voices initiative, she is interested in documentaries by women and gender-diverse directors that can shift the narrative on gender equality and justice.

Rufus is responsible for the management of Madman’s wholly-owned documentary SVOD platform DocPlay. Rufus has a background in journalism and film criticism, and he has worked in the film industry for over 15 years in various roles. He has also worked for film agencies in the Netherlands and New Zealand and for Doc Edge International Documentary Film Festival in Auckland. He is a passionate advocate for documentary as a vehicle for social change. Rufus is a graduate of the Australian National University and AFTRS.

Danielle Ah Boo is a proud Torres Strait Islander woman, born and raised on Thursday Island. Ms Ah Boo is Screen Queensland’s Head of First Nations, 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. 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.

Louise Hayse is the Training and Operations Manager at fxphd, one of the world’s leading providers of professional training for the visual effects, animation and games industries. As Secretary of the Sunshine Coast Screen Collective, she focuses on building industry capability and creating sustainable opportunities for regional screen and games practitioners. Louise works across strategic partnerships, workforce development, and industry initiatives that connect emerging talent with education, production, and business opportunities, helping to grow the Sunshine Coast as a recognised creative hub.

Alice McShane is the Conference Programming Manager of AIDC. Born in Tasmania / Lutruwita and now based in Melbourne / Naarm her specialty as a screen programmer is in documentary cinema. She was a Senior Screen Programmer for the former SXSW Sydney, and the Program Manager of the Human Rights Arts & Film Festival (HRAFF). She has served been on film juries including for the Melbourne Women in Film Festival (MWFF) and the VCAA’s Top Screen program. She is a former board member of MWFF. And she has been a film panelist for the Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), where she also hosts festival Q&As.

Alice is an Auscritic member and regularly contributes to Triple R’s Primal Screen program hosted by Dr. Flick Ford. She has been a grants assessor for the International Documentary Association (IDA) and Screen NSW. She has a long history of working in film festivals and cinemas, including at Palace Cinemas, and has worked on the production side as an Associate Producer at Common Room Productions.

Outside of programming, Alice is the captain of a gender-inclusive AFL team, the Old Bar Unicorns. She holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Screen Studies from the University of Melbourne.

Natalie has spent a decade working on film and arts events, specialising in marketplace delivery and industry development programs in recent years. She was the Industry Coordinator at AIDC for the 2023-2025 editions and is thrilled to step up to deliver the industry program in 2026. She’s also worked in a variety of roles at Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) and 37°South Market, was Screen Programs Manager at Environmental Film Festival Australia, Co-Director of Girls on Film Festival, and has worked at numerous other festivals and cinemas across Melbourne and London. Natalie also holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts and Cultural Management, both from the University of Melbourne. Outside of film, Natalie is a Hatha/Vinyasa yoga teacher and is forever juggling too many hobbies.