Real stories, real characters, real conversations.
The Castlemaine Documentary Festival runs every year in midwinter at the Theatre Royal, ninety minutes from Melbourne. It’s a curated program of Australian and international non-fiction film, with social events, industry panels and Q&As built around it, so the conversation carries on well after the credits.
Where we began
Maggie Fooke, John Waldie and Geoffrey Smith held the first festival at the Theatre Royal in 2015. Maggie co-owned the theatre and had been screening documentaries there for years, so when Geoffrey and John came to her with the idea of a festival for the genre alone, it wasn't a hard decision.
Geoffrey, a double Emmy-winning director, was joined by Denise Button, and between them they ran it every winter to 2019. Claire Jager took over as Festival Director at the end of that year. The festival became a not-for-profit in 2018, and has run on volunteer board members ever since.
The Theatre Royal was owned by Tim Heath and Felicity Cripps, then from 2026 by Eloise Ross and Greg Bennett, and it's still home.
The years that tested it
2020 went hybrid rather than dark. CDoc IN THE CLOUDS screened over three nights with panels broadcast live from the Theatre Royal, and a brief window between lockdowns let forty people back into the cinema. In 2022 another lockdown landed days out from opening night, and the festival became the one to go to when you couldn't go anywhere, then the one that came to you.
Club CDoc started around then, to hold the filmmakers and the audience together between festivals. LOCALS followed. The region had more filmmaking talent than anyone expected.
The themes
Press
For media enquiries, contact Georgie Barnes at And George PR.
In the press, 2026
From Scottish porridge to love tapes: Castlemaine Documentary Festival draws international filmmakers and sold-out sessions
Castlemaine Documentary Festival returns this June
In the June issue, page 36
What's on in Melbourne and regional Victoria this week, 22 to 28 June
Also on air: 10 News First's Must Do Melbourne and 9 News Melbourne.