Ireland/UK’s Mike Downey and Istanbul-based Emir Kuelal Haznevi, both exec producers on Cannes competition entries Parallel Tales (Asghar Farhadi) and All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi), have joined forces to form the new boutique film financing outfit Saudade Ink to develop, produce and invest in quality arthouse fiction and documentary cinema from across the world.
The production and development fund, which has been “pulled together” from a consortium of private individuals from Turkey and the Middle East, is looking to spend up to €2 million per year in its first two years, making strategic investments of between €150,000 and €200,000 in individual projects. Downey and Haznevi estimate that they will make investments in 5-8 productions from leading international authors per year, with some seed funding for development.
“Emir and I have been working together on a wide range of productions for a number of years now,” says former EFA chair and Downey Ink principal, Mike Downey. “The time had come to formalize our business relationship, and the coming together of the film fund gave us the ideal opportunity to do that. And what better time to do it than with a couple of our strategic investments being selected for competition in Cannes.”
Films produced to date through the partnership (outside of the current Farhadi and Hamaguchi Cannes projects) include Agnieszka Holland’s Oscar-runner Franz, Rajko Grlic’s political thriller It All Ends Here, Antonio Nuic’s upcoming film Looping, as well as Agnieszka Holland’s Venice-winning film Green Border.
“Our connections with talent at the highest level has been the catalyst for the bringing together of the Saudade Ink fund,” says Syrian-born, Istanbul-based Haznevi. “Our initial investments have seen a low-risk strategy already bear fruit on individual projects, ranging from Franz which had its world premiere in Toronto as well as Green Border. We have had our four last films in a row all launched at FIAPF ‘A’ Class festivals, and the commensurate sales have resonated with our investors.”
Previously, Downey was CEO of London/Dublin-based Film and Music Entertainment and sat on the board of the European Film Academy for 25 years, serving as Chair from 2020 to January 2026. Emir Külal Haznevi was born in 1986 in Syria. He graduated in Cinema Studies at Marmara University and founded Saudade Film in 2015. Since then, he has worked as a creator and producer in more than 250 episodes for a wide variety of Turkish and international TV including Türk Caz Standartlari Enstitüsü, and Muasir.
The partnership is non-exclusive and Haznevi and Downey will still run their own individual slates through their respective companies Saudade and Downey Ink.
Docs will feature greatly in the pair’s future output. These include Downey’s “passion project,” the feature documentary Don’t Stop Dreaming, about the Rio-based Projeto Vidançar initiative that offers underprivileged children the opportunity to express themselves through ballet. “I got to know Projeto Vidançar more than a decade ago,” says Downey. “I became close to the project and its leader Ellen Serra, and over the years have been supporting and doing my best to help it grow and flourish, which under Ellen’s leadership it has. The story of the children of Vidançar needs to be told.”
Downey adds: “We are looking to get involved at an early stage in the development and production of documentaries that not only have festival potential, but also can break through the theatrical barrier.”
“This has become more and more difficult post-pandemic. But we want to re-visit that idea especially in the context of our previous track record working with street children’s narratives, such as Streets United and Street Kids United, the Girls from Rio, and with the upcoming Street Child World Cup. Basically we are going to continue what we do with the street kids and look for other social deprivation-related stories to try to bring attention to the plight of the dispossessed and socially excluded.”
“Documentaries have the power to mainline emotion to the audience in a very different way to fiction,” Downey underlines of the form. “They also have the power to motivate to action and resistance. That’s what I love about them and why we will always keep searching for stories that allow the audience to engage with a narrative in this very special way,” Downey signs off.
