Mike Downey – Head of the main jury of PriFest 2025

PriFest – Prishtina International Film Festival proudly announces that Mike Downey, Chair of the Board of the European Film Academy, will be the Head of the Main Jury at the 17th edition of the festival, taking place from September 9–14, 2025 in Prishtina.

Downey is a distinguished author, filmmaker, and activist with an impressive career spanning over 100 feature films as producer or author. His work as a writer has been widely published in leading international magazines, including Vogue, Variety, Screen, Stills, and Cineaste. He is also co-founder of the media publishing group Moving Pictures, established in the 1990s.

Throughout his career, Downey has collaborated with renowned writers such as James Ellroy, Günter Grass, Colm Tóibín, Lee Hall, David Grossman, and Shane Smith (founder of Vice), as well as acclaimed directors including Agnieszka Holland, Volker Schlöndorff, Peter Greenaway, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

As Chair of the European Film Academy, Downey co-founded the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk and served for a decade on the board of the White Ribbon Alliance. He has held the post of Thomas Ewing Visiting Professor at Ohio University and, in 2021, was named Honorary Head of the LUX Film Award by the European Parliament. That same year, he was awarded the title of O.B.E. by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for his contribution to British cinema. In 2022, the University of Warwick conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) in recognition of his contribution to world cinema.

Downey is also a successful novelist. His most recent work, ISTRIA GOLD, has been translated into 20 languages and distributed in 60 countries, with an Albanian edition forthcoming. His next novel, ISTRIA BLACK, is set to be published in the United Kingdom, Ireland, and India in October 2025.

In the coming days, PriFest will unveil the other members of the jury as well as the full film program of its 17th edition.

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