Raymond Edwards(I)

Raymond Anthony Edwards was born in what used to be called Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, and has worked in the industry since 1980, in Commercial Television and Stage Theatre. He's a multi-faceted artist and started painting and sculpting at an early age. He exhibited internationally as a contemporary artist. Edwards was the Theatre Director and founder of "Gondo Arts Centre", Southern Africa, here, actively involved in theatre film and television during the 1980s. But it was his original creation, "Vanished Civilization" - a theatre production, written, produced, directed, acted, and composer of the soundtrack - which demonstrated his multifaceted talents to an echelon of exceptional achievement; lastly performed before a private audience of international dignitaries at the 8th Conference for "The Non-Aligned Movement", 1986. Edwards also, sang, choreographed the dance sequences for his musical dramas, with his original soundtracks later released on vinyl, through "Gramma Records". Most of his prominent works have not received international acclaim, as Rhodesia-Zimbabwe was undergoing political changes. Recognised for his excellence, Edwards was offered to further his passion for filmmaking, through private sponsorship. He moved to the USA in 1988. He studied at the California Institute of the Arts, under the mentor-ship of Jules Engel (the "godfather" of Experimental Animation) and Kris Malkewicz (author of "Film Lighting"). He received his BFA degree in Film/Video, 1994 and his MFA degree in 1996. In his Summer breaks, he worked at Hollywood's 'Electric Filmworks' and Stargate Digital, aka Stargate Films, at "Rijn & Reisman" as a sculptor/Model Maker, for the Dr. Seuss Theme Attraction, Universal Studios. Edwards further explored the film process with a focus on cinematography and motion graphics. Edwards produced and directed the film Shadow Rising (1996), a 16mm Animation-cum-Live Action film, which showed at the Academy of Animation, in North Hollywood. Shadow Rising received an award for best Short at the DV Awards in Spring 2005. He went on to work at 'Centropolis Effects' (1997-2000), as a CGI Animator/Technical Director; 'Centropolis Film Productions' being notorious for its Twentieth Century Fox blockbuster, Independence Day (1996). Here he worked on 'Columbia Pictures Corporation' Godzilla, Stuart Little and The Patriot (2000). During this time, Edwards studied at "the Joanne Baron/DW Brown Studios" in their Acting program, 2000-2002. He moved to London to work as a CGI artist at the "Jim Henson's Creature Shop', 2003-2004, renowned for their The Muppet Show (1976). There, he worked on the Pride 2004. He founded his own film companies, "Blinding Films", 2005 and BluntImage, 2017. Edwards has won a multitude of festival awards for Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor, both in the USA and Internationally, with projects like, Fervency, 2022; Stolperstein, 2012, No Apologies, 2022 and Dimensional Travel, 2019. He is, now, in development with various film projects as a Director, Writer or at times, an Actor.