Mike Downey is an Irish film producer and activist who founded the Dublin- and London-based independent production house Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) in 2000. To date he has credits on over 100 feature films.

In his relatively short career as a film producer he has worked with the likes of Peter Greenaway, Agnieszka Holland, Julien Temple, Pawel Pawlikowski, Calin Peter Netzer, Andrzej Jakimowski, Juraj Jakubisko, Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, Michel Franco and Stephen Daldry, as well as a multitude of other directors the length and breadth of Europe, South America, Africa and India.
His recent work as a film maker has included projects with novelists of legendary stature such as the great James Ellroy, the late Günter Grass, and Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s List). He has also worked with Colm Tóibín, Ida writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz, VICE Group founder and CEO Shane Smith, as well as diverse directors such as Volker Schlöndorff, Mohsen Makhmalbaf and Oliver Hirschbiegel.

In addition to his multiple box office successes, Mike’s productions have received over 250 awards, including from most major film festivals, such as Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Sundance, San Sebastian, Tokyo and many more.

Downey has been a board member of the European Film Academy for almost 20 years and, after six years as Deputy Chair, he was elected Chair in 2020,  serving alongside former presidents Wim Wenders and Agnieszka Holland and current president Juliette Binoche." . 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. In 2020 he re-joined the BAFTA Council. Downey is also a trustee of the White Ribbon Alliance, a major global organisation which aims to reduce childbirth mortality levels in the developing world, as well as the co-founder and board member of the International Coalition for Film Makers at Risk (ICFR) a charitable foundation which advocates for and acts in solidarity with filmmakers at risk all over the world.
He has served on over 20 international juries at film festivals worldwide including the Sarajevo Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival, Cottbus International Film Festival, Warsaw International Film Festival, Istanbul Film Festival, Montreal International Film Festival, Motovun Film Festival, Sofia International Film Festival, Transylvania International Film Festival, Krakow International Film Festival and Zagreb International Film Festival, where a retrospective of his work at F&ME was held in 2009.
In 2014, he was named Producer of the Decade at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, joining the two previous laureates, Ed Pressman and Robert Evans. A tribute to his work as a producer was also held at the 2015 Prague Film Festival.  In addition he received the Kristian Lifetime Achievement Award from Prague in 2021 and in 2023 in Reykjavik he received the inaugural lifetime achievement award from the Icelandic film industry for his contributions to international cinema.

In 2020 his alma mater, Warwick University, awarded him a D.Litt. doctorate honoris causa, for his life work and contribution to European theatre and cinema. In his role at the European Film Academy he and the board are supporting the establishment of an educational organisation, Filmclub, which aims to bring quality cinema into schools across Europe.
In early 2022, Mike was invited to be a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, as well as being inducted into US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). In 2017 he joined the Asia Pacific Screen Academy after winning their Cultural Diversity Award under the patronage of UNESCO, for the Georgian film Dede.

His most recent productions include the opener of the Un Certain Regard section of the Festival International du Film at Cannes, Runar Runarsson’s Icelandic film, When the Light Breaks.  The Albanian film The Rise and Fall of Comrade Zylo, which he co-wrote, opened Tallinn and Agnieszka Holland’s The Green Border won multiple prizes in Venice including the Special Jury Lion.  He is also currently shooting Holland’s Kafka biopic, Franz, which is just finishing its last shooting days in Prague and Berlin. Other films he has worked on now entering the distribution phase include La Suprema (Colombia), Calin Peter Netzer’s Familiar (Romania), Hotel Pula (Croatia), Hidden People (Slovenia), The Song of the Goats (Poland) and I am Somebody (Netherlands). Currently in active production are Rajko Grlić’s It All Ends Here (Croatia), LO-FI (Turkey), Gorki Resort (Poland), The Sun, The Moon, and the Eleven Stars (Turkey) as well as Lady D (Albania) which he also co-wrote. He is currently writing If I Were a Boy, based on the novel by Haki Stermilli, in collaboration with director Fatmir Koci as well as his most recent novel Istria Black for publication in UK and Ireland in October.

His production of Oleg Sentsov’s Real will be completed in summer 2024 and will screen at a major A festival, similarly his exec production on Runar Runarsson’s new film ‘O’ will also screen at an A fest.  He is currently working with the artist Albert Oehlen and Academy Award nominated director Oliver Hirschbiegel on a follow up to their previous art movie The Painter, entitled GEEL (Yellow). Looping by Antonio Nuic is currently shooting in Zagreb and in pre-production is a documentary about the Projecto Vidancar community ballet school in the Complexo Alemao favela of Rio de Janeiro. Srdjan Dragojevic’s International Women’s Day is being prepared for a 2025 shoot.

Mike’s debut novel, Istria Gold, was published in the UK and Ireland last year by MPress Media/Calm Productions. The book was published in Bulgaria last October to great critical acclaim, and India in March. It will be published in Croatia in September with further editions to be published in Macedonia, Ukraine, Serbia, Czech Republic and Turkey later in the year. Its sequel, the second part of the Three Colours Istria trilogy, Istria Black, will be published in December and Istria Blue, the final part, will follow. Last year he was a Writer-in-Residence for the month of June 2023 at Ingmar Bergman’s Bergman Foundation and Center at his former home on Fårö, the Baltic Sea island northeast of Gotland. This year sees him taking up a residency in Chiang Mai at the Artist Residency Thailand, Lotus programme.

He divides his time between Istria, Dublin and wherever he is shooting his latest movie.

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Distributor at Teodora, Producer at Palomar and Member of the European Film Academy, Margherita Chiti joined Nanni Moretti’s Sacher Distribuzione as Head of Distribution in 2007. At the same time, she worked as Productions Assistant for Luigi Musini’s and Roberto Cicutto’s production companies On My Own and Cinemaundici. In 2012, Margherita joined Teodora Film Distribuzione as Head of Acquisitions and TV Sales. She joined Palomar Produzioni as Head of International Productions and Affairs – Cinema & TV in 2021. She has been working as an expert for the EU Creative Europe Agency in production, distribution and access to markets funding schemes for over 10 years. She co-founded the Women in Film, TV & Media Italia in April 2018 and has been a board member ever since.

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José Luis Cienfuegos is the director of Seminci, Valladolid International Film Festival, Spain, one of the oldest film festivals in the world , focusing on ‘auteur’ cinema. Prior to this, he was the director of Seville European Film Festival (2012 -2023) and of Gijón Film Festival (1995 -2011). A member of the European Film Academy and a member of its feature length expert committee 2021-23, he formed part of the LUX Film Awards selection committee from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Spanish Film Academy and the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts, from 2013 to 2017 he was a Jury member for the Prince of Asturias Award for the Arts organised by the Prince of Asturias Foundation and has also been a jury member at numerous festivals such as Rotterdam, Karlovy Vary, San Sebastián, BAFICI, Santiago de Chile, Documenta Madrid and Las Palmas, amongst others.

He also currently works as a lecturer at several universities and film schools and as an advisor for various cultural institutions plus organizing exhibitions and concerts and is the author of numerous cinematographic articles.

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Head of distribution and acquisitions at Midas Filmes since August 2008, Marta is also a member of the programming team and handles the press and social media of Cinema Ideal, the cinema that Midas II Cinemas renovated and reopened in 2014.

She has been working in film distribution for over 20 years. She started her career at Atalanta/Medeia Filmes, where she was responsible for the communication and marketing strategies of over 200 film theatrical releases, the programming of several programmes, debates and festivals organised by Medeia cinemas, as well as at the IndieLisboa Film Festival, where she was Executive Producer. Before moving into the film business, she worked as a journalist and was member of the research team of the Obercom communication observatory, where she was author and co-author of several European reports. She has a degree in Media Studies from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a Master’s Degree in Cinema. Her postgraduate studies were in cultural management and emerging discourses and cultures – from critics to art.

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After studying Russian at INALCO and obtaining a master’s degree in the politics of culture at the Institute of European Studies in Paris 8, Priscilla Gessati was in charge of studies and the network review of the Europa Cinemas European programme before carrying out work for the Forum des Images municipal cinema centre in Paris. She also worked on the programming of Ciné Lumière for the French Institute in the United Kingdom and the production of the fifth Totally Serialized TV series festival. Deeply committed to programming and defending arthouse cinema and diversity, she coordinated distribution and publishing activities at Potemkine Films before taking over the management of Le Balzac, an historical cinema theatre located on the Champs Élyseés. Together with Joël Chapron she co-authored Principles and Mechanisms of Financing French Cinema and Regulation and Practices of Cinematographic Exploitation, initially intended for the Russian market. She recently started in a new position at l’Entrepôt (Paris), an atypical space that includes a cinema as well as a music venue, an art gallery, a restaurant and a bar.

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Eamon Hughes graduated the National Film School of Ireland in 2020, and had his graduate film go on to be long listed for the Student BAFTA awards. Shortly after this Eamon begun working as the Production Manager at Samson Films in 2021, a feature film production company based in Dublin Ireland. Recent films including My Sailor, My Love, premiering at TIFF 2022, The Ghost of Richard Harris, premiering at the Venice Biennale 2022, and, Baltimore, premiering at Telluride 2023 and the London Film Festival. Eamon is currently working on the slate of films currently in production as well as producing and leading a number of his own projects within the company.

In 2023, Eamon was chosen as the Irish Ambassador for the 27 Times Cinema project and has since taken an active part in promoting the Lux Audience Award.

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As a producer, Denis Ivanov has made 8 feature films and over 40 shorts. His film The Tribe by Myroslav Slaboshpitsiy won the Grand-Prix of Cannes’ Critics Week 2014 and was released in more than 40 countries. Donbas by Sergei Loznitsa won the Best Director prize of Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2018. His recent works Rhino by Oleh Sentsov (2021) and 107 Mothers by Peter Kerekes were premiered in the official selection of the Venice International Film Festival.

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Axelle Jean holds a degree in History, Geography, and Intercultural Communication from Sorbonne University (Paris), with a particular emphasis on Icelandic and Hungarian languages. She has gained extensive experience working for festivals/markets (Cannes Docs - Marché du Film, Cinéma du réel, Festival de Cabourg, FIPADOC) and film sales company (The Party, Picture Tree International). Her primary focus is documentaries and she has been serving as a reviewer for the Reykjavik International Film Festival and Giornate degli Autori since 2022 and 2024 respectively. In 2023, she was chosen as the French Ambassador for the 27 Times Cinema project and has since taken an active part in promoting the Lux Audience Award. She recently joined documentary sales company Cinephil. 

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One World is considered to be the largest human rights documentary film festival in the world. It is held in Prague and over 30 towns in Czechia. The festival screens documentaries on human rights, social, political, environmental and media issues, and includes Q&As, panel debates, virtual reality events, social impact projects, screenings for schools and the East Doc Platform for film industry. One World distributes documentary films, provides assistance to new festivals (e.g. in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Hong Kong), focuses on people with disabilities and organises an edition of One World in Brussels.

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Originally from Stockholm Sweden, Ibtisam Omer is a creative marketing executive and educator with over 14 years of international experience working at leading companies within tech, fashion and entertainment. Previously at adidas, Google and Netflix, Ibtisam also works as an Industry Lead and lecturer at Creative Business School Hyper Island as well as sitting on the board of music platform Boiler Room.

Ibtisam is currently Vice President Marketing, Global at MUBI and is based in Berlin.

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Working with Gutek Film since 2013, Katarzyna is responsible for devising and overseeing the whole process of the release of all the company’s titles, from the setting and implementation of the budget to the overall distribution, marketing and PR strategies for each film released. She has been responsible for over 100 successful campaigns for films such as Parasite by Bong Joon-ho, The House That Jack Built by Lars von Trier, Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Céline Sciamma, Toni Erdmann by Maren Ade, Drive My Car by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Parallel Mothers by Pedro Almodóvar, C’mon C’mon by Mike Mills and Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Östlund among many others. Born in 1982, she has been working in the film industry for 17 years, currently specialising in marketing and distribution strategy. She began her career at the Warsaw Film Festival as the Head of Guest Service, later shifting her focus onto theatrical distribution at Mañana, a Warsaw-based distributor specialising in Latin American, Asian and African titles. She was responsible for the marketing strategies of numerous award-winning titles, in addition to programming and producing a range of specialised events such as Spanish Cinema Week, the Ale Kino World Film Festival and the Latin American Film Festival. In 2022, Katarzyna created a new festival called Konfrontacje Filmowe (Film Confrontations) for Gutek Film. The festival showcased, and premiered, an exclusive selection of the most interesting titles from the upcoming season, screening them in 24 arthouse cinemas spread across 18 cities in Poland. Katarzyna strongly believes in arthouse cinema and for the last few years has been looking for new ways of promoting theatrical releases by combining tried and tested methods – co-operating with brands, institutions and individuals, and special theatrical events – with a modern, analytical, data-based approach.

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Claudia Tronnier studied comparative religion, new German literature, Indology and science of media in Marburg, Germany. She wrote about films for different media outlets during the 1980ss before becoming a freelancer at the public broadcaster Second German Television (ZDF) in Mainz in 1990. There she joined the Das kleine Fernsehspiel talent department as a commissioning editor for feature films, documentaries and different kinds of experimental formats. In 2008, she was appointed head of Das kleine Fernsehspiel. During her time at ZDF, she commissioned a great number of national and international co-productions, including several films by Turkish/German film-makers and film-makers who have roots in other countries. She established a programme to support women film-makers and is co-founder of a prize for female directors, the SI STAR. Since 1 January 2021, she has been Head of Cinema, TV and Series at Arte G.E.I.E. She is also a member of the programme conference and is responsible for the coordination, selection and programming of all fictional programmes airing on Arte and Arte TV

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Amitabh Vardhan has a diverse professional background with experience spanning several countries, including India, the US, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, the UK, and Macedonia. He has a strong track record of driving business growth through innovation, expansion, and new partnerships in sectors such as entertainment, consumer goods, services, hospitality, and real estate. He has effectively built and led large, cross-functional teams towards achieving organisational goals, established mutually beneficial strategic alliances with various stakeholders and developed effective marketing strategies that led to increased brand visibility and growth. Since 2010, Amitabh has been Director and CEO of Cine Grand DV, prior to which he had been CEO of PVR Cinemas (the largest cinema chain in India) since 2003.

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Maria Silvia Gatta joined the European Commission MEDIA programme in 2003, dealing with the evaluation of the MEDIA+ programme and of distribution support.

After spending a period abroad, she has supervised the implementation of the Creative MEDIA Programme 2021-2027 since 2019 and works on European film heritage policy.

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Fatima Djoumer joined Europa Cinemas in 1993 as Head of International Relations and Events and has organised network conferences, audience development programmes and innovation labs. She has also worked on the development of the Europa Cinemas Label. Europa Cinemas is a film theatre network that supports the circulation of European films outside their country of origin and promotes audience development activities, with a focus on stimulating young audiences’ interest in European films.

The network has 1 216 member cinemas (with 3 131 screens) in 738 cities across 43 countries.

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Nuno Pimentel is from Portugal where he graduated in Film from art school before heading to Antwerp to work at the development department of a production company. In the UK he studied Screenwriting at the Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2016 he joined the Portuguese distribution company Alambique, to co-ordinate Cinema Bold, an in-house release label, focused on alternative distribution strategies for unconventional films. In 2019 he was part of the Locarno Industry Academy, and was invited again in 2021, this time as part of the U30 programme dedicated to a new generation of film professionals.

He currently lives in Berlin where he moved in 2020 to enroll at the Dffb’s Next WAave programme, focused on the cinephilia of the future and the development of international film markets. At the programme, under the mentorship of MUBI’s VP of production Bobby Allen, he developed Félicette Films, an alternative pan-European distribution label with the aim of releasing a carefully curated selection of films that “fall through the cracks” – artistically rich, courageous and genre-defying works which deserve a spotlight.

In 2021 he successfully pitched the project at the Berlinale and the Cannes Film Festival.

Past and present projects also include collaborations with Wolf Kino in Berlin, and Rapid Eye Movies in Cologne. He also dabbles in scribbling and experimental filmmaking.

You can talk with him in Portuguese, English, Spanish and very basic French. Soon (he hopes) you’ll also be able to reach him in German.

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