He made a documentary about them called In Spring One Plants Alone, which won the 1982 Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel[7] (Paris), and a Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival.

[9] Between them they garnered close to 30 national and international awards (including the Grand Prix at festivals in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United States).

[16] The heart of his original script, known as ‘the monks in space’ version, was however not captured in the final film and has since been recognised by the London Times Online, who in 2008 gave it the top spot on their list of 'greatest sci-fi movies never made’.

[17] Ward's next film Map of the Human Heart (1993) charts a relationship between an Inuk boy, a Métis girl and a visiting British cartographer.

[18] The film stars Jason Scott Lee, Anne Parillaud and Patrick Bergin, and features John Cusack in a minor role.

[19] In the 1990s Ward spent several years in and out of Hollywood, where he developed multiple projects before he signed on to direct What Dreams May Come (1998) a screenplay adapted by Ronald Bass from Richard Matheson's 1978 novel.

What Dreams May Come was released in the United States on 2,600 screens and starred Robin Williams, Annabella Sciorra, Cuba Gooding Jr. and Max von Sydow.

Eventually, after Ward approached several directors, including Francis Ford Coppola and Peter Weir, he got Edward Zwick to helm the film.

Rain of the Children followed in 2008, wherein Ward retells the story of Puhi, the elderly Tuhoe woman who was the subject of his earlier documentary In Spring One Plants Alone.

[27]" In October 2020, filming began in Ukraine on Ward's new feature Storm School with further shooting planned in China, UK and Australia.

In 2012 he had his first major solo show, Breath, at New Zealand's cutting edge public gallery, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth.

[32] Rhana Devenport, director Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, wrote in her catalog for the exhibition: Ward's ongoing concerns with metamorphosis, falling, light, fear, memory, darkness and the transformative moment have led him to create a series of vast, physically imposing works that delve into other-worldly landscapes and transcendent states, to evocations of loss, redemption and unconscious realms.