Actor / Director Profile

Mike Downey founded the UK-based independent production house Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) in 2000. He spent most of the eighties as a theatre director and producer in France, Germany, the former Yugoslavia and the U.K., as well as working as a publisher, contributor and critic for various international publications including Variety, Screen International and Moving Pictures International. Downey completed his undergraduate theatrical studies at the University of Warwick, and wrote his Masters degree thesis at L'Universite de Paris-III (Sorbonne-Nouvelle) before moving to teach a course in association with the Theatre des Amandiers and Patrice Chereau and begin his (as yet, unfinished) doctoral work at L'Universite de Paris-X (Nanterre). His theatre work included productions of Look Back In Anger, The Big Sleep, Woza Albert!, Decadence, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Othello, and his own play In Search of Artaud, as well as working as a correspondent, contributor and critic on such diverse titles as Screen International (London), Variety (New York), Cinemaya (New Delhi), Cinema Papers (Melbourne), Vogue (Madrid), Chaplin (Stockholm), Stills (London) and Cineaste (New York). In addition to this, Mike was also publisher of the television industry trade paper MPTV, and the European Film Review (published in association with FIPRESCI). His first book, The Self Managing Screen, was published by the British Film Institute. He was associate producer on Rajko Grlic's award winning feature film Caruga, and co-producer of Sebastian Niemann's Seven Days to Live. He followed this with a range of productions which include Michael Bassett's Deathwatch starring Jamie Bell, Venice competition entry Sjaj u Ocima (Loving Glances), Falcons and Niceland by Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Peter Timm's My Brother is a Dog, Hillmar Oddson's Cold Light, and Strings by Anders Ronnow Klarlund. In 2005 he completed Guy X by Saul Metzstein starring Jason Biggs, Shadow of the Sword by Swiss director Simon Aeby, the gay Icelandic football comedy Eleven Men Out by Robert Douglas, Murk by Denmark's Jannick Johansen and the UK/Polish/German adaptation of the G?Grass novel Unkenrufe (Call of the Toad) directed by Robert Glinski. Son of Man, the follow up to the highly successful U Carmen eKhayelitsha directed by Mark Dornford May screened in competition in Sundance in 2006, and won best film at the San Francisco Pan African International Film festival, and Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival 2006 also saw Anastezi - The Great Silence by Spanish director Miguel Alacantud with Sir Derek Jacobi in the lead role, Killer on the Road by James Ellroy, Cassandra at the Wedding by Saul Metzstein and The Border Post by Rajko Grlic which was in competition at San Sebastian. Just completing is Mirror Maze directed by Spanish tyro Guillermo Groizard in collaboration with Madrid based Rioja Audiovisual. In October of 2007 he began principal photography on debut film maker Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin' the true story of multi-personality Appalachian mountain dancer Jesco White, in association with the VICE group. The film is currently in post production in London. Finally for 2008, post production is currently underway on legendary Slovak director Juraj Jakubisko' Bathory (working title) the truth behind the legend of the 'bloody' Countess Elizabeth Bathory. Produced in association with Jakubisko and Eurofilm of Budapest. Also just completed is Quest for a Heart, the company's first animation film with songs by Billy Elliot's Lee Hall, and The Mystery of the Wolf - a family film shot in Lapland. Film and Music Entertainment has also begun to shoot the feature documentary field in partnership with Discovery. They are developing The Turtle's Song, chronicling the 20 year odyssey of the giant loggerhead turtle as it swims around the world only to return to the beach of its birth two decades later to lay its eggs. If, the beach is, indeed, there. Directed by Emmy Award winning documentarist Nick Stringer. Also currently in post production is Goran Rusinovic's Buick Riviera. Downey is a tutor on Sheffield University's Creative Writing for Film course, is Thomas Ewing Visiting Professor of Film at Ohio University, a member of the Board of Advisors in the film school of Oklahoma University and the President of the Board of Advisors of the Motovun International Film Festival in Croatia. He has published several lengthy tomes about producing in Europe, notably The Film Finance Handbook published by the Media Business School in two volumes. A former tutor on the Media Mega Master's course at the Media Business School, he currently also works in an advisory capacity with Amnesty International establishing humanitarian film prizes at festivals around the world. He joined the board of the European Film Academy in 2002 and is currently serving his third term of office. In 2006 he was voted on to the Council of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and in 2008 he was elected to the BAFTA Film Committee. The Film and Music Entertainment catalogue currently comprises of 30 titles many released theatrically in the UK via F&ME's joint distribution venture with Maiden Voyage Pictures. Downey is currently an advisor to USAID - the US Government's aid organisation which is currently supporting efforts to rebuild the film infrastructure in the Balkans. Alongside this he works closely with Amnesty International to establish 'awards of conscience' at film festivals around the world.