VicScreen's inaugural Originate Factual program has kicked off, with 12 writers, directors and producers selected to participate.
With only nine Australian feature docs making more than $100,000 at the box office last year, and none more than $350,000, the future of Australian documentary in cinemas went under the microscope at AIDC.
Six films will contend this year's AACTA Award for Best Documentary.
'Franklin', set to premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival, recounts the '80s environmental campaign to save Tasmania's Franklin River through the eyes of Oliver Cassidy, who retraces the journey taken some 40 years before by his late activist father.
Screen Australia has announced $1.9 million in production funding for 10 documentaries through the Producer program and one through the Commissioned program.