Ant Timpson

Ant Timpson (born 21 April 1966) is a New Zealand film producer and director, best known for producing The ABCs of Death series, Turbo Kid, Deathgasm and The Greasy Strangler. He founded and hosts the 48Hours film contest.^[1]

Ant Timpson
Timpson at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Come to Daddy in 2019
Born	(1966-04-21) 21 April 1966 (age 59) New Zealand
Nationality	New Zealander
Occupation	Producer
Years active	1994–present

Career

In 2003, Timpson founded the annual 48Hours film challenge, a New Zealand-based competition where teams of filmmakers create a short film in 48 hours.^[2] Taika Waititi and Te Radar won in the festival's first year.^[3]

The film Turbo Kid originated as a submission for the "T" segment in ABCs of Death. Though not selected, Timpson was impressed and approached the filmmakers to expand it into a feature.^[4] Timpson got Elijah Wood and his production company, SpectreVision, involved in producing The Greasy Strangler.^[5]

In 2016, he won the British Independent Film Awards Discovery Award.^[6] Also in 2016, he won a Saturn Award for Best International Film.^[7]

Timpson before the premiere of Come to Daddy at the Tribeca Film festival in 2019

In January 2017, it was announced Timpson would produce a new horror anthology, The Field Guide to Evil, consisting of eight directors, each from a different nation.^[8] The crowdfunded project is unique in that it will allow backers the opportunity to have equity investment.^[9]

In 2019, his debut feature film Come to Daddy premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. The film has a score of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.

His 2024 film Bookworm premiered as the opening film of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival, where it subsequently won the Audience Award: Gold for Best International Feature.^[10][11][12]

Personal life

Timpson grew up in Auckland and briefly studied at University of Otago with the intention of becoming a lawyer before dropping out.^[2]

Timpson believes censorship systems are archaic and started a fundraiser for a teacher who was fired for showing one of his films in her class.^[1]

He owns the biggest private collection of 35mm films in the Southern Hemisphere.^[2]