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AIDC selects projects for 10th FACTory pitching showcase

Stills from FACTory pitching showcase projects 'Testimony', 'Myth of Monsters' and 'Troublemaker'

Fifteen teams from ten nations will participate in this year’s FACTory International Pitching Showcase at the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), with 2025 marking the initiative’s 10th anniversary.

Coming under the strands of Central Showcase, New Talent Showcase, and Rough Cut Showcase, the selected projects will be pitched to local and international commissioning editors, broadcasters, streamers, sales agents, distributors, funders, and festivals.

The shortlisted Central Showcase and New Talent Showcase teams will present their work to decision makers and an audience of AIDC delegates at Fed Square’s The Edge auditorium on Tuesday, March 4, preceded by the Rough Cut Showcase at ACMI on Monday, March 3.

Before then, the teams have the opportunity to undertake intensive pitch training conducted by experienced screen practitioners, including 70 Plus Production Company Limited owner and producer Peter Yam (Hong Kong), Women Make Movies executive director Debra Zimmerman (USA), Faction North Ltd owner and producer Grant Keir (Scotland), and Three Waters Films director, producer and founder Miao Wang (USA).

All FACTory projects will be eligible to win pitch prizes, including two passes to participate in DOK Leipzig 2025 (Leipzig, Germany), two passes to participate in Doc Edge 2025 (Auckland, New Zealand), two festival passes to participate in Sheffield DocFest 2025 (Sheffield, UK), two passes to DMZ Docs Industry 2025 (Paju, South Korea), two passes to Sunny Side of the Doc 2025 (La Rochelle, France), two passes to Docs by the Sea 2025 (Bali, Indonesia), and two passes to participate in Visions du Réel 2025 (Nyon, Switzerland).

A previous iteration of The FACTory at AIDC.

In addition to the annual pitching showcase, the AIDC is also presenting its inaugural Indigenous Creators Pitch, offering Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators the opportunity to pitch a project in development to a closed room of local and international buyers. One project will be selected to receive the $5,000 Indigenous Creators Pitch prize presented by AIDC.

Pitch participants will present their projects in a roundtable format to the ABC head of Indigenous
Kelrick Martin, NITV head of Indigenous commissioning and production Dena Curtis, CBC executive in charge of production, Factual & Documentary, Nic Meloney (Canada), Doc Society director of special projects Hollie Fifer, and American Documentary | POV co-producer Robert Y. Chang (USA).

Projects for the FACTory International Pitching Showcase, presented by VicScreen, are as follows:

CENTRAL SHOWCASE

ATOMIC PARADISE
Atomic Paradise is a powerful theatrical documentary experience that reframes the atomic bomb testing program of the Pacific region through a First Nations lens in a new and prophetic light.
Director: John Harvey; Producer: Sally Aitken; Executive Producer: Aline
Jacques
SAM Content (Australia)

HEART
A son’s love for his dying father propels one of the greatest medical breakthroughs in history. A machine to replace the human heart.
Director: Alaneo Gloor; Producer: Matt Blyth; Exec Producer: Alex West
Millstream Productions (Australia)

HIP HOP LAND
Hip Hop Land is a groundbreaking music documentary series illuminating Indigenous hip-hop’s cultural revolution.
Director: Kim O’Bomsawin; Producer: Chaz Beaudette;
Nikan Productions (Canada)

THE PALM PRINT
An international forensic expert and an award-winning journalist, investigate a British psychopath who killed twice in Australia, exposing his deception, arson, and extraordinary ties to three unsolved UK murders.
Producer: Claire Forster; Executive Producer: Celia Tait
Artemis Media (Australia)

THE SHAPE OF BLUE
Two Japanese indigo dyers embark on a transformative, inner journey: one uncovers the profound meaning within the hues of blue, while the other gains a new way to see through his colorblindness. Together, they fight to revive a century-old tradition on the brink of disappearing.
Director: Sybilla Patrizia; Producer: Ina Fichman
Intuitive Pictures (Canada, Japan)

TESTIMONY
As the climate emergency rises before them, Torres Strait Islanders rise up and sue the Australian Government for climate harm. This is their testimony.
Director: Maya Newell; Producers: Barbara Ibuai, Larissa Behrendt, Sophie
Hyde, Lisa Sherrard, Alex Kelly
Closer Productions (Australia)

TROUBLEMAKER
A massacre survivor and a filmmaker form an unlikely bond as they slip down the rabbit hole of paranoia, in a desperate search for solace and truth.
Directors: Jared Nicholson and Ben Lawrence; Producer: Rebecca Barry
Media Stockade (Australia)

NEW TALENT SHOWCASE

CROSSING THE TIDELINE
A surfer is attacked by a great white shark, chillingly captured on drone. The life-changing experience sends him on a journey to reconnect with himself and the ocean.
Director: Andrew Kaineder; Co-Writer: Brett Burcher; Producer: Anna Kaplan
Regen Studios & Stitch Films (Australia)

IN FOCUS
On a quest to unveil the truth about his community, photojournalist Barat Ali Batoor has no idea that he is about to become the subject of his greatest
story yet.
Directors: Barat Ali Batoor & Joseph Nizeti; Producer: Leeanne Torpey
Chaos & Co. Productions (Australia)

MYTH OF MONSTERS
How far will you fight to belong? Filmmaker Beatrice bares her soul, confronting autism, misdiagnosis, and institutionalisation. She turns her pain into activism to reclaim her story and transform outcomes for women like her.
Director: Beatrice Leong; Producer: Panuksmi Hardjowirogo
M’GO FILMS (Singapore, Malaysia)

RESTLESS FAREWELL
Young migrant workers left out of the system, gaining self-awareness on assembly lines. Approaching the end of their youth with a meager salary and fragile friendships, can they escape their parents’ fate?
Directors: Nan Yang & Peiyun He; Producer: Shuhao Tse
Independent (China)

UMBRELLAS OF THE ACROBATS
A young acrobat realises his vision is failing, he uses his powers of
imagination and storytelling to retain his foothold in a nomadic circus
community.
Director: Mukesh Subramaniam; Producer: Ponvishal Chidambaranathan; Co-Producer: Peter Yam
Elsewhat & Potato Eaters Collective (USA, India)

ROUGH CUT SHOWCASE

ABSTRACT
Two searches are underway in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. One seeks the dead, the other stalks the living. Each pursues the migrant body beyond recognition.
Director: Jaydn Ray Gosselin; Producers: Brianda Gosselin-Hickey, Jacob Fertig, Chelsea Hernandez
Denizen Studios (USA, Mexico)

JENIN & THE NAKBA BETWEEN US
A diasporic Palestinian filmmaker struggles to make a contemporary portrait of Jenin, her parents’ hometown in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, when her footage takes on radically new meaning post-October 7.
Director: Serene Husni; Producers: Marc Serpa Francoeur, Rula Nasser
Lost Time Media, The Imaginarium Films (Canada, Jordan)

SWEAT IT OUT!
The wild untold story of Oz Rock, of Australia forging its identity through music and an ethos of bands that toured longer, drove further, and played harder.
Director: Mark Hartley; Producers: Cathy Rodda, Craig Griffin
Sweat It Out Productions (Australia)

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