Organisers of the 2005 Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC) held in Adelaide from February 21 – 24, one of the most successful in recent years, have announced the winners of the conference’s pitching competitions.

In 2005 there was more money to be won for development funding and a new pitching initiative was launched by the inaugural Interactive Media Delegation at the AIDC through the Bell Fund Mission from Canada, the Adelaide Film Festival Investment Fund and the South Australian Film Corporation.

The successful projects to win each AIDC pitching competition were:

“The Book That Shook the World”. Con Anemogiannis (Director) and Judy Menczel (Producer) won the SBSi and TV 2 Denmark Pitch and Punt prize of $AUS 16,000.

“The Voyage of the Catalpa”. Chris Hilton and Ian Collie (Essential Viewing) won the ABC and RTÉ Television Pitch and Punt prize of $AUS 20,000

”Who is Guy Bourdin?” Writer/Director Sean Brandt and Samuel Bourdin won the ABC Arts and Entertainment pitching competition prize of $AUS 10,000 development funds.

“Mini Treehouse”. Damien Mair (Fusion Design) and Dan Fill (Decode) were awarded the Bell Fund/AFFIF/SAFC pitching competition prize of $AUS 15,000

”Dreamer”. The People’s Republic of Animation and Xenophile Media were awarded the 2nd prize of the Bell Fund/AFFIF/SAFC pitching competition of $AUS 7,500

Conference Director Heather Croall said, ‘the AIDC 2005 has been a great success with more than 600 delegates attending and an increase in development funds of over $60,000 through the pitching competitions.

The conference was attended by a record number of award-winning filmmakers, overseas delegations and leading buyers from around the world.

The following are comments from some of the international delegates attending the AIDC:

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Christoph Jörg – Commissioning Editor, Arte France
’The DOCUmart pitching is one of the best pitching forum I have ever been
at, the projects were of a very high standard and the technical side of the
pitching ran perfectly.’

Mette Hoffmann Meyer – Commissioning Editor, TV 2 Denmark
’Many of us have been going to markets for 20 years and this is one of the best
we have been to.’

Iikka Vehkalahti – Commissioning Editor, YLE TV 2 Finland
’From the big picture to the smallest detail, you and the AIDC team had it all
covered.’

Pat Ferns – President & Executive Producer, Ferns Productions Canada
’…congratulations to you and everyone associated with AIDC2005 on a splendid achievement. This was clearly the best AIDC ever, and all your hard work and effort in attracting commissioning editors certainly paid off.’

Karolina Lidin – Director, Filmkontakt Nord, Nordisk Panorama Denmark
’ … such a professionally run event covering such a wide range of issues. Professionally, it really meant a lot to me to meet the Australian community on home turf. This year's AIDC really put you on the International Documentary Map.’

The 2007 Australian International Documentary Conference will be held in Melbourne.