Antony Hickling

Antony Hickling was born in South Africa, Johannesburg the son of an Indian father and English mother. At a young age he returned to the United Kingdom and the family settled in Greater Manchester where he trained as an actor at Manchester University (The Arden School of Theatre).

After working in the theatre in London for several years, he moved to Paris to study at the Paris 8 University Vincennes-Saint-Denis. After obtaining his Master of Arts, he left his doctorate in Performing arts, unfinished to pursue a career in cinema.[1]

In 2012, he trained as a director at the European Center for Film Production (CEFPF) in Paris under the direction of the Belgian director Harry Cleven. He went on to direct films related to his research on Queer and his films have been screened at LGBTQ film festivals worldwide.[2][3] He continues to work as an actor and has lent his voice to many characters in animation for cinema, documentaries, video games and for major advertising brands around the world.

He has worked as professor of stage & screen at the Cours Florent school in Paris since 2022.

The early films of Hickling[4] are characterized by his underground film style and are rich in religious symbolism, metaphors and explicit sexual depictions. The Trilogy of films : Little Gay Boy, Where Horses Go To Die and Frig marks the end of what Hickling has called the first chapter. Both Frig and Little Gay Boy were forbidden in France for under - 18s by the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, usually reserved for movies containing simulated sex or extreme violence.

In 2017, he founded the production company H&A Films, and with Down in Paris, he moves towards a more traditional narrative style. The film illustrates the beginning of a new phase in the director's work. His next film, An Afternoon with Patrick Sarfati, is an intimate documentary portrait of the French photographer.

• Jury, Chéries-Chéris[10] Paris, France 2012
• Jury, Serile Filmului Gay International Film Festival 2012, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
• Member of the Board of Directors and programmer for the festival Chéries-Chéris, Paris, France, from 2013 to 2016.
• Jury, TGLFF, Torino Gay and Lesbian Film Festival, Italy 2015[11]
• Jury & Focus, Timi Shorts- Timișoara, Romania 2015[12]
• Round table discussion with Randal Kleiser, about the current state of contemporary LGBTQI cinéma for the Champs-Élysées Film Festival, Paris[13] Paris 2017
• Focus on his work at BIG!ff – Bari International Gender film festival Italy 2018, sponsored by Apulia Film Commission Italy.[14][15]
• Focus on his work at Rio Festival de Gênero & Sexualidade no Cinema 2018
• Focus on his work at the festival cultural de diversidad sexual y género, Cuernavaca, Mexico 2018.
• Focus on his work at Chéries-Chéris MK2, Paris, France 2018
• Hybrida [GeSex#1] International colloquium on gender and sexuality perspectives in contemporary Francophone artistic-literary creation University of Valencia 2018[16]
• Focus on his work at Queer Zagreb, Perforacije Festival Zagreb, Croatia 2019[17][18]
• Jury, Sadique-master film festival, Paris 2019[19]
• Focus on his work at The IV DIGO – Goias Sexual diversity and gender international Film Festival, Brazil 2019.
• Focus on his work for Semana Rainbow, A Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Brasil 2019[20]
• Carte Blanche for the 25th edition of L'Etrange Film Festival, Forum des Images, Paris, France 2019
• Retrospective & Masterclass at The International Queer Film Festival Merlinka or Merlinka festival, Belgrade, Serbia 2019
• Jury & Masterclass, Zinegoak, Bilbao International Film Festival (Basque Country) Spain, 2020
• Retrospective TLVFest, Tel Aviv's International LGBT Film Festival, Israel, Sept 2020.
• Jury, The International Queer Film Festival Merlinka or Merlinka festival, Belgrade, Serbia 2021
• Jury, image+nation culture queer Image+Nation, 35th Edition, Montreal, Canada, Nov 2022

• Down in Paris wins: Best Director, Queer international Film Festival, Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Nov 2022 [21]
• Down in Paris wins: Best Director for a Feature Film (International), Yellowstone International Film Festival, New Delhi, India, October 2022 [22]
• Antony Hickling for Down in Paris wins The Kim Renders Memorial Award for Outstanding Performance Reelout Queer Film Festival, Canada, Feb 2022[23]
• Down in Paris wins season award nomination for Best Feature Live Action Narrative | Manchester Lift-Off, UK, 2022
• Down in Paris obtained the Arthouse Recommendation from the French Association of Arthouse Cinemas on 24 Feb 2022.
• Down in Paris wins Best Narrative Feature for the 39th Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival OCT 2021
• The Trilogy (Little Gay Boy, Where Horses Go To Die & Frig) receives the Christian Petermann award for an innovative work. Controversial scenarios expressed through music, dance and daring at the IV DIGO – Goias Sexual diversity and gender international Film Festival, Brazil, 2019
• One Deep Breath – Best experimental feature at Zinegoak film festival in Bilboa, Spain, 2015[24]
• Special Mention for his work as a director at Rio FICG, Brazil, 2015
• Holy Thursday (The Last supper) – Special mention from the Jury. Chéries-Chéris, France, 2013