International documentary fundraising forum Good Pitch has selected seven documentaries to participate in this year’s Good Pitch² event in Sydney, the first of its kind of Australia.

The previously announced October 8 event at the Sydney Opera House is the latest satellite version of the Britdoc and Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program-helmed fundraising forum, which focuses on social impact docs and had its first international event in 2009.

The event – hosted by the Shark Island Institute and the Documentary Australia Foundation - will unite the seven selected filmmakers with foundations, not-for-profit groups, campaigners, philanthropists, policy-makers and others.

The Australian documentaries selected include Sophie Wiesner’s Call Me Dad, on men who have perpetrated or are at risk of perpetrating family violence; Belinda Mason’s Constance on The Edge, in which a Sudanese refugee attempts to transform her rural town of Wagga Wagga; Richard Todd’s Frackman, in which an activist explores the modern-day multinational gold rush in Australia; and Charlotte Mars’s Gayby Baby, which sees four children with gay and lesbian parents sharing their stories.

Also set for the forum is Hollie Fifer’s The Opposition, in which a group of Papa New Guineans must avoid getting evicted to an industrial waste site; Damon Gameau’s That Sugar Film, on the prominence of sugar in our diet and culture; and Aaron Petersen’s Zach’s Ceremony, which follows a city-raised boy as he reconnects with his indigenous roots.

“Australia has got all the ingredients for a great Good Pitch,” said Beadie Finzi, director of the Good Pitch program for the Britdoc Foundation, in a statement. “A tremendous hub of creative documentary filmmakers and a community bristling with independence and determination to get films made and seen nationally and internationally.”

Malinda Wink, executive director of Good Pitch² Australia, added: “The selection process required much debate and careful consideration from our local and international selectors… Our goal was not only to find and support outstanding films, but to select a diversity of subject matter with a view to craft a national conversation within the inaugural Good Pitch² Australia event.”