Irish-UK producer and former European Film Academy Chairman Mike Downey was honoured September 26 with the Batumi International Art-House Film Festival (BIAFF) in Georgia. The Award acknowledged his contribution to World Cinema as a producer and European Cinema as former chair of EFA and current President of the LUX Prize of the European Parliament.
Previous recipients of the award include Paul Schrader, Bela Tarr, Agnieszka Holland, Denis Lavant, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Alexander Mindadze, Abbas Kiarostami, Jos Stelling, Nastassja Kinski and Eldar Shengelaya.
As a producer, Downey has worked over the years with a wide range of A list/Academy Award-nominated directors and writers in the fiction and documentary field, ranging from Agnieszka Holland, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Asghar Farhadi, Volker Schloendorff, Stephen Daldry and Pawel Pawlikowski.
Downey, who stepped down from a 25-year stint on the European Film Academy Board been a member of EFA since 2000, was also recently appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E.) in the Queen’s Birthday 2021 Honours List, given in recognition of his services to cinema.
Downey has long worked in Georgia on a wide range of films, helping to build the industry from the early 2000’s largely through his partnership with 20 Steps Productions led by Georgia’s leading producer Vova Katcharava. Together they worked on Ben Hopkins’ Lost in Karastan, starring Matthew Macfadyen, and which was the UK’s first official co-production with Georgia, filmed in Tbilisi; The President (2014), directed by acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf and co-produced with Georgia’s 20 Steps; Dede (2017), a dramatic film directed by Georgian filmmaker Mariam Khatchvani, set in the harsh, remote historic region of Svaneti; How to Sell a War (2018), a comedy directed by Rudolph Herzog (son of Werner and stepson of Downey), co-produced with 20 Steps Production, and shot on location in Georgia, and Shindisi (2019), directed by Georgian legend Dito Tsintsadze, and based on the true events of the 2008 Russian military intervention in Georgia.
“Mike Downey is a great friend of Georgia and Georgian cinema.” says Tbilisi-based Katcharava. “We have made a good number of films together and we shared the highs and the lows in solidarity with each other. We always managed to do something that wasn’t only a good contribution to art, but also, we had fun along the way. As a producer he has worked with the best in the industry not just in Georgia but around the world. He also contributed a lot to developing young talent in Georgia and they are very grateful for that. And as the chairman of the European Film Academy was always supporting Georgia in good times and bad times, and was always on the right side of history.”
“Georgia has been like second home to me over the years,” comments Downey, “And I am proud and delighted to have played a small part in building this very special and unique industry. The crews I have worked with here have always been world class and the work ethic is above and beyond the call of duty. What I love on sets here is that there is an extraordinary sense of the collective from the third AD to the swing gang and up to the production team. I would love to work more here and for sure I will aim to do that from now on.”
Lasha Khalvashi, Managing Board Member of BIAFF adds: “Mike Downey has been an important figure in European independent cinema for decades, but for us this award also has a very personal meaning. Mike is one of those international producers who discovered the potential of Georgia early and, more importantly, kept coming back. He didn’t simply bring international productions here; he built relationships, worked with Georgian filmmakers and crews, and helped Georgian stories become part of a much wider international film landscape.”
