While working towards his MA and then PhD, he taught at the Lycée Charlemagne and at the theatre school at the Théâtre des Amandiers, under Patrice Chereau.

[6] A decade later, in 2000, Downey joined forces with fellow producer Sam Taylor,[7] to create the UK-based independent production house Film and Music Entertainment (F&ME) as part of a public offering on the Frankfurt Neuer Markt.

[7] His work as a film maker has seen projects developed with novelists James Ellroy,[9] the late Gunter Grass,[10] and Thomas Keneally (Schindler's List);[11] IDA writer Rebecca Lenckiewicz,[12] VICE Group founder and CEO Shane Smith,[13] as well as directors such as Volker Schloendorff,[14] Mohsen Makhmalbaf,[15] and Julien Temple;[16] and writers of the ilk of Lee Hall,[17] Colm Tóibín,} and David Grossman.

[18] In his career as a film producer he has worked with a wide range of directors, including Peter Greenaway,[18] Agnieszka Holland,[19] Paweł Pawlikowski, Andrzej Jakimowski,[20] Rajko Grlić,[21] Srđan Karanovićc, Juraj Jakubisko,[22] Fridrik Thor Fridriksson,[23] and Stephen Daldry,[24] as well as a multitude of other helmers the length and breadth of Europe, South America, Africa and India.

[47] In 2009, Downey's work as a producer was honored with a retrospective at the Croatia's largest cultural event, the Zagreb Film Festival.

[48] In 2014, he received Producer of the Decade Award from the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, presented by Stephen Daldry.