Richard Welch is an experienced documentary curator, lecturer and filmmaker, with over 20 years’ experience in the screen media industry.
As Festival Co-Director and a founding member of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, Richard presided over establishing Antenna as one of Australia’s premier film festivals dedicated to documentary cinema since its inaugural year in 2011. The festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2021.
Throughout his tenure as Festival Co-Director, Richard drove innovative industry programs, including the Antenna DocTalk and Horizons, forging connections with some of the world’s leading festivals, broadcasters and OnDemand platforms including Sundance, Berlinale, Hot Docs and BBC Storyville. Locally, he has extensive and long-standing relationships with broadcasters, funders, distributors, and documentary filmmakers.
With over ten years teaching experience, across media and documentary, Richard has designed and delivered outstanding short, medium and full-time courses for an array of institutions both in Australia and the UK. Prior to becoming the Discipline Lead, Documentary, he successfully ran the Graduate Certificate in Documentary at AFTRS for three years. Richard has also consulted and mentored on numerous documentaries for television and festivals.
Richard has a Bachelors degree in Film; a Masters by Practice in Documentary; and a Masters by Research. He is currently undertaking a Higher Research degree candidacy at Macquarie University, in the Doctor of Philosophy program, exploring the interconnectivity between national identity and sport, which will include a feature archival-essay documentary as part of his thesis.
An experienced documentary director and producer, Richard’s recent credits include The National Game and Tea for Two. Before moving to Australia, Richard worked on numerous documentaries and produced over 50 films for the Visionaries initiative, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Richard currently has several projects in development including a series and long-form feature documentary.