Ricky Townsend is a young filmmaker from Christchurch, New Zealand. Ricky studied fine arts in film, at the Ilam School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury. He is also pursuing an arts degree in Philosophy.
Ricky was diagnosed within the Autism Spectrum Disorder at a very young age. Because of this, Ricky has found filmmaking helps him understand other people and be understood in ways he could never achieve before.
Ricky Townsend’s early work won the Overall Secondary Student Award for the 2016 ‘New Zealand Young Filmmakers Competition’ and the Secondary School Runner Up Award for the 2016 ‘FocusOnAbility Short Film Festival’. Ricky also directed the comedic ‘How To Bus’ social etiquette video with Metro Canterbury which currently has more than 270 thousand views on Facebook.
Ricky has had his recent short films 'Tremble' and 'TRUTH.exe' selected for the 2019 Sydney Indie Film Festival, the 45th Boston Science Fiction Film Festival, the Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival, the SciFi Film Festival, in Australia, the NZ Top of the South Film Festival and the Changing Face International Film Festival.
'TRUTH.exe' won Best Student Film at the Miami International Science Fiction Film festival an 'Tremble' was nominated for Best True Story at the Sydney Indie Film Festival.
Ricky's short film on autism, 'Mr. Savant', is one of 10 winning films in The Outlook for Someday 2019 Film Challenge. A nationwide film competition for people under 24 in New Zealand.
