Mike Downey

Mike Downey is an author, film maker, and activist. As a non-fiction writer, Mike has published

on a wide range of subjects and has garnered a vast archive of collected writings in publications

from Vogue to Variety, from Screen to Stills to Cineaste, having co-founded the Moving Pictures

media publishing group in the nineties. As a film maker he has worked with writers like James

Ellroy, Gunter Grass, Colm Toibin, Lee Hall, David Grossmann and Vice founder Shane Smith,

as well as eclectic range of directors including Agnieszka Holland, Volker Schloendorff, Peter

Greenaway, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf. As Chairman of the European Film

Academy he is the co-founder of the International Coalition for Film Makers at Risk and for a

decade was a Trustee of the White Ribbon Alliance. Former Thomas Ewing Visiting Professor

of Film at Ohio University, in 2021 he became the Honorary President of the LUX Film Award,

presented by the European Parliament, and in the same year he was he was awarded an O.B.E.

in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to British Cinema. In 2022 the University

of Warwick presented Mike with a Doctor of Literature degree, honoris causa (D.Litt.), for his

contribution to World Cinema. ISTRIA GOLD marks his debut as a novelist.