Iceland’s leading film event, Stockfish 2023, conferred March 29 an honorary award on Irish/UK producer Mike Downey for his “outstanding contribution to the film industry.” The presentation was made by outgoing director of the Icelandic Film Center, Laufey Gudjonsdottir. Downey was present at the festival also to present his production of The Rise and Fall of Comrade Zylo, directed by Fatmir Koci and co-written by Downey.
“There’s only one thing better than getting an award from the audience and that is an award from one’s peers,” Downey said. “Having made a dozen films in Iceland or with Icelandic talent, I can really say that I am doubly honoured. I have been so lucky in my working life to be able to recognise early on the difference between having a job – and having a vocation – this, I believe came from a sense of freedom in my education and this forged a sense of huge independence how I have run my career. When we are able to blur the lines between work and play and, to use the cliché, do what we love and love what we do – this is something that cannot be bought.”
Downey’s work as a filmmaker (with production company F&ME, founded in 2000) has seen projects developed with novelists James Ellroy, the late Günter Grass, and Thomas (Schindler’s List) Keneally; IDA writer Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Vice Group founder and CEO Shane Smith, as well as directors like Agnieszka Holland, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Volker Schlöndorff, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Peter Greenaway, Julien Temple, Paweł Pawlikowski, Juraj Jakubisko, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, and Stephen Daldry; and writers such as Lee Hall, Colm Tóibín, and David Grossman. Hehas production credits on around 100 feature films, the lion’s share of which are multi-party European co-productions with partners across Europe.
In 2020, as Chair of the European Film Academy, Downey played a lead role in the launch of the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR) which aims to activate the film community’s collective response to filmmakers who face political persecution for their work. Founding partners of ICFR are the European Film Academy, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam are the founding partners of the ICFR, with activities that include advocacy, support, monitoring, and observation.
In September 2020 it was announced that Downey would be the Honorary President of the 2020/2021 jury for the revamped LUX Prize, renamed LUX – the European Audience Film Award by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy, a role he continues to fill.
Downey is currently engaged in a number of docs including The Ghost of Richard Harris, which BritBox International, jointly run by UK networks BBC and ITV, will launch in the US, says Downey. The feature-length doc, which premiered at Venice 2022, tells the story of the late actor, poet and singer, whose long and prodigious career in films such as the Oscar-nominated This Sporting Life and The Field was partially overshadowed by a reputation for drinking and riotous behaviour.
The UK/Irish producer recently oversaw the international roll-out of Painter by Oliver Hirschbiegel, in collaboration with Albert Oehlen. Currently in post-production is the fourth instalment of the Streetkids United tetralogy.
Away from film, Downey’s debut novel, Istria Gold, was published in the UK and Ireland in October 2022. The sequel Istria Black will appear in 2023, and in 2024 the final part of the trolgy, Istria Blue, will be published.
