In 2002, Fennell was a winner of the first AFI Young Film Critics Competition.[5] He then became the film critic and reporter for Sydney radio station FBi Radio from 2003–2006.[citation needed]
During this period Fennell was selected as one of four presenters of SBS's The Movie Show in mid-2004.[5] Fennell remained with the show until June 2006, when the show went on hiatus, returning in a different format (and with a different team) in 2007.[6][7]
Fennell also regularly produced digital projects exploring cinema culture including Bollywood For Beginners: a series for SBS Television about the history of Bollywood.[8] He also co-produced a web series about movie trailers, Coming Sooner, with Nick Hayden and Nicholas McDougall.[9]
Fennell has written 2 books, That Movie Book[10] and Planet According to Movies[11] both published by HarperCollins.
Fennell hosts the ABC's technology radio program Download This Show which examines the latest developments in social media, consumer electronics, digital politics, hacktivism and online privacy.[15] The program airs on Radio National, ABC Local Radio Digital and throughout Asia Pacific on Radio Australia.[16] Fennell has also regularly produced reports on technology for programs on ABC News 24 including News Exchange (ended), The Drum, Weekend Breakfast and the Technology Quarter (ended).[17]
The Feed
Marc Fennell anchored the SBS current affairs program The Feed[18] from 2013 to its conclusion in 2022.[19] In addition to his main role co-hosting, Fennell's prerecorded segments became a feature of the show, most notably his interviews with film and television stars.[20] In 2020, Fennell won a Walkley Award for documenting the theft of museum specimens.[21]
India Now
Fennell became an inaugural co-host of the weekly ABC television show India Now on 30 May 2022.[22] The show, described as "an exciting, rich and entertaining half hour of news, culture and politics from India and the subcontinent" is made by the creators of Planet America and China Tonight. The show is aimed at an Australian audience and it is hosted by Australians with Indian heritage.[23][24]
In 2019, Fennell created It Burns, a podcast series covering the global race to grow the hottest pepper.[26] In 2020 he produced Nut Jobs investigating $10 million worth of nuts stolen from California.[citation needed] Fennell also created the ABC and CBC podcast series Stuff The British Stole which has since spawned a television series airing in Australia and Canada.[27]
Documentaries
In 2021, Fennell presented Framed a 4-part SBS documentary into the theft of Picasso's painting The Weeping Woman.[28] Fennell hosted the Australian version of The School That Tried to End Racism for the ABC.[29] Fennell has reported around the world for the SBS foreign affairs programme Dateline.[30]
In 2023, he presented The Kingdom, a feature-length SBS documentary which premiered on 11 June 2023 and which investigated his former Pentecostal religion, in particular the successes and controversies of the Hillsong Church and the rise in new megachurches in Australia.[31] Later that year, he presented his 3-part investigation The Mission: The Strangest Art Heist You Never Heard Of about art works stolen in 1986 from the New Norcia Monastery in regional Western Australia.[32]
In 2012, iTunes Australia named Download This Show the best new podcast, and it has won Best Audio Program at the Australian IT Journalism Awards ("The Lizzies") many times.[33] It won Best Outlet in the 2023 Lizzies.[34]
