Downey Ink. unveils ambitious slate of projects after premiering Girls on Wire in Berlinale's competition
- Producer and European Film Academy chair Mike Downey’s own banner is set to expand its global footprint with a raft of new projects from Europe and beyond
Producer and European Film Academy Chair Mike Downey visited this year’s edition of the Berlinale (13-23 February) to present one of his first collaborations with China, Vivian Qu’s competition entry Girls on Wire, and to unveil the rich slate of productions under his banner, Downey Ink.
Downey is serving as executive producer on Agnieszka Holland’s new collaboration with Films Boutique, Franz. Currently in post-production, the film is being produced by Sarka Cimbalova for Marlene Films and co-produced by Uwe Schott and Jorgo Narjes for Germany’s X-Filme, Marcin Wierzchoslawski for Poland’s Metro Films, David Grumbach for France’s Bac Films, and Turkish producer Emir Kuelal Haznevi.
Meanwhile, Downey is developing two more projects with Marlene Films. Cimbalova and Downey are partnering on a feature based on best-selling author Kateřina Tučková’s hit novel, The White Water, produced in collaboration with Mimesis' Jan Macola, as well as Razor Man, penned by award-winning Charlatan [+see also:
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“My taste for a diverse range of world cinema projects remains,” says Downey. "It is the company’s goal to connect with the best in writing from European masters, as well as engage with projects that demonstrate a social conscience and also have an engaging political agenda. I’m with Mayakovsky when he said, ‘Art is not a mirror to hold up to reality, it is a hammer to beat it into shape.’”
Continuing his long-term documentary collaboration with Jamilla van der Hulst and Conrad Alleblas of Dutch outfit JaJa Film Production, post-production has just wrapped on Cricket Dreams, an inspiring story of nine former street-connected children from Delhi who seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to compete in the Street Child Cricket World Cup in Chennai. The film recently premiered at the New Delhi Film Festival.
Downey, Alleblas and van der Hulst are also working together on an untitled documentary set in Brazil, following children from one of Rio de Janeiro’s most deprived favelas.
Next, Downey is in post-production on a film he co-wrote with Fatmir Koçi, titled Lady Di. Shot in Tirana, the drama follows three homeless teenagers who find refuge with a kindly prostitute on the city’s mean streets.
The creative duo have also extended their writing partnership to yet another project, an adaptation of the 1936 Albanian classic novel If I Were a Boy by Haki Stërmilli. Slated to begin filming in Q3 2025, the film explores the inner world of a young girl in Tirana and her revolutionary thoughts on women’s emancipation and empowerment in Albania’s patriarchal society.
“As the name of the company would suggest,” adds Downey, “Downey Ink. is also a vehicle for my continued participation in films as an author. Later in the year, we will announce a couple more major projects that I will also be writing or co-writing. There are several offers on the table to adapt my most recent novel, Istria Gold.”
In Turkey, the tireless Irish-British producer is involved in two more endeavours. The first, Lo-Fi, directed by Alican Durbaş and produced by Vayka Film’s Ipek Erden, is currently in post-production in Istanbul. The story follows Emre as he revisits bittersweet memories of his past relationship with Defne while packing up his apartment, ultimately embracing the present as he moves out and moves on.
The second project, now in pre-production, is The Sun, the Moon and the Stars, directed by Emir Kuelal Haznevi, Downey’s aforementioned production partner on Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border [+see also:
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Finally, Downey has forged additional partnerships on Srdjan Dragojević’s upcoming International Woman’s Day, Antonio Nuić’s Loop, Miha Hočevar’s Hidden People starring Icelandic thespian Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, and Łukasz Palkowski’s The Duel—the latter three all in post.
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