"[7] In 2018, he and Joslyn Barnes were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature[8][9] for producing and directing Strong Island.

[12] Also in 2018, he and Barnes were awarded an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for producing Strong Island, which made him the first openly transgender man and the first black openly transgender person to win an Emmy award, as well as the first openly transgender filmmaker to win a Creative Arts Emmy also for[13][14][15] Strong Island about the murder of his brother William Ford, which occurred in 1992.

[11] He has also received a Creative Capital Award, and a Sundance Documentary Film Program Fellowship.

[6] Ford directed an episode of the 2020 documentary series, Trial By Media, titled "Blago!

", about the media furor over the court case against Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich.