After arriving in the U.S., Hicks used his music training in and around New York to transition to shooting and directing his first feature documentary, Keep On Keepin’ On, which brought him the Audience Award and Best New Director honours at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. Keepin’ On also won awards at IDFA, AFI, Cinema Eye, Seattle Film Festival, Palm Springs, Hamptons Summer Docs, Aspen Film Festival, Boulder International Film Festival and was included in the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature for the 2015 Academy Awards.

Hicks’ recent film Quincy premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018. It received the Critic’s Choice Honour for Best Music Documentary, was included in the Doc NYC Short List, the Hollywood Reporter’s Top Ten Films of 2018 and was the New York Times Critics Pick.