WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
In the complex world of modern filmmaking, the producer stands at the centre of every creative, financial, and logistical decision. But what truly defines the work of a great producer? How are decisive choices made in moments of uncertainty? How do you build teams, guide directors, navigate studios, manage risk, and protect the creative vision while ensuring the project is delivered?

In this immersive FEST FILM LAB workshop, producer Iain Smith invites participants into the inner workings of his process, how he thinks, how he collaborates, and how he leads at every stage of a film’s life.

Through open conversation, real-world examples, and Iain’s direct reflections on his own methods, the sessions will examine:
Key Themes
How a producer thinks: shaping decisions under pressure, developing good judgement, and balancing instinct with experience.
Leadership in filmmaking: managing teams, setting the tone on a production, and creating the conditions for great creative work.
Creative collaboration: working with directors, writers, actors, studio executives and financiers in a way that supports the project’s vision.
Managing scale: what changes—and what doesn’t—when producing large, complex films versus independent projects.
Problem-solving as an art: navigating crises, conflicts, and unexpected challenges, and turning them into opportunities.
Building trust: establishing credibility, maintaining transparent communication, and fostering long-term creative relationships.
Protecting the film: understanding when to push, when to compromise, and how to keep the project on course from development to final delivery.l.

Whether you are already producing films or transitioning into a more leadership-oriented role within your projects, this workshop offers a great opportunity to step inside the mind of an internationally respected producer and understand the craft from the inside out, how decisions are made, how challenges are solved, and how films are shaped through the intelligence, sensitivity, and judgement of the producer.

Four-Session Structure:

SESSION 1 — The Producer’s Mindset: Judgement, Vision & Early Decision-Making
Core focus: How a producer thinks, makes decisions, and identifies a project’s potential.
Topics
What a producer really does: from creative architect to strategic diplomat
Developing instinct and judgement: how producers read people, material, and situations
Understanding the DNA of a project
Packaging creatively: talent, genre, scope, ambition
Navigating uncertainty: risk, opportunity, momentum
Choosing collaborators and identifying strengths in early development
Common early-stage pitfalls and how to avoid them
Case Studies
The Fifth Element (1997): How early creative decisions shaped visual ambition and production scale.
Children of Men (2006): Assessing the risk and reward of a bold creative vision and how the decision to support that vision influenced every department.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015): Understanding long-term commitment and project resilience even before production begins.


SESSION 2 — Creative Collaboration: Directors, Writers, Actors & Key Departments
Core focus: The producer as a collaborator, bridge-builder, and mediator.
Topics
Building trust with directors and writers
Guiding the story without overstepping
Supporting performances: the subtle producer–actor relationship
Harmonising creative perspectives among departments
Reading creative conflict and turning it into momentum
The producer as the guardian of tone and intention
Communication frameworks that keep teams aligned
Case Studies
Children of Men — collaboration with Alfonso Cuarón: aligning creative clarity across cinematography, production design, and long-take choreography.
Wanted (2008): Navigating director, cast, and studio expectations on a stylised action film.
Actor-led challenges: anonymised or general examples of how producers support actors through demanding material, scheduling pressure, or preparation needs.


SESSION 3 — Leadership in Action: Managing Scale, Teams & Crises
Core focus: Leadership under pressure, real-world problem solving, and navigating complexity.
Topics
Leadership styles in filmmaking
Protecting morale and communication on set
Scaling production: indie vs. blockbuster
Making decisions under pressure: clarity, timing, responsibility
Crisis management: weather, budget, safety, studio politics
Working with international partners and multi-country shoots
Maintaining control while empowering teams
Case Studies
The Fifth Element — managing an ambitious production with complex sets and visual effects.
Mad Max: Fury Road — extreme-location filmmaking: environmental challenges, stamina, and production resilience.
International Co-Productions: logistical, cultural, and financial lessons learned across continents.
Participant reflection exercise
“What was the hardest day you ever had on a shoot?” followed by group analysis.

SESSION 4 — Protecting the Film: From Development to Delivery & Sustaining a Caree
Core focus: How producers safeguard projects, shape outcomes, and navigate industry realities.
Topics
Keeping the film’s core vision alive from prep to post
When to compromise, when to stand firm
Balancing creative demands and commercial realities
Working with distributors, studios, and festival strategies
The afterlife of a film: marketing, awards, audience positioning
Long-term career sustainability: reputation, collaborators, and reinvention
Understanding your value as a producer
Case Studies
Festival & awards trajectories from Iain’s films: how strategy influences visibility and longevity.
Creative recovery stories: moments when a film could have gone wrong, and how producing choices changed the outcome.
Lessons learned across decades: how the industry evolves and how producers evolve with it.

ABOUT IAIN SMITH

Iain Smith OBE is one of the most distinguished and influential film producers working in international cinema, with a career spanning more than four decades. His work has been recognised with a BAFTA Scotland Award for Outstanding Achievement in Film and with appointment as Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to film. Films produced by Smith have received Academy Award nominations, won major international prizes, and achieved worldwide box-office success.

Among the most celebrated films he has produced are Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Children of Men (2006), The Fifth Element (1997), Cold Mountain (2003), The Fountain (2006), Seven Years in Tibet (1997), Entrapment (1999), Alexander (2004), and Wanted (2008). These productions, often realised on a large international scale, are widely studied for their creative ambition, logistical complexity, and bold artistic vision.

Iain Smith began his career working across multiple departments, before returning to Scotland to contribute to My Childhood, the first film in Bill Douglas’s landmark BFI-backed trilogy.

In the late 1970s, Smith formed his first production company and quickly established himself. He production-managed Bertrand Tavernier’s Death Watch (starring Romy Schneider and Harvey Keitel) and soon after joined David Puttnam and Hugh Hudson on Chariots of Fire, one of the most celebrated British films ever made.

Smith went on to line-produce and associate-produce several key films of the 1980s, including Local Hero (dir. Bill Forsyth), The Killing Fields and The Mission (dir. Roland Joffé), working with filmmakers and performers such as Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Sam Waterston, and Haing Ngor. These films cemented his reputation as a producer capable of handling politically complex material and large-scale international shoots.

In 1987, Smith founded Applecross Productions, from which he went on to produce and co-produce a wide range of major studio and independent films. His collaborations during this period included Stephen Frears (Mary Reilly), Luc Besson (The Fifth Element), Jean-Jacques Annaud (Seven Years in Tibet), Tony Scott (Spy Game), Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain), Oliver Stone (Alexander), Darren Aronofsky (The Fountain), Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men), and George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road).

Particularly notable is Children of Men, now regarded as a modern classic, and Mad Max: Fury Road, which went on to win six Academy Awards and is widely considered one of the greatest action films ever made. Smith served as executive producer on Mad Max: Fury Road, helping bring George Miller’s vision to the screen under extraordinary production conditions.

PROFILE OF PARTICIPANT
The workshop is designed to Directors, 1st AD, Producers, Film Students, and anyone with the interest in directing non actors.

16 hours
Duration: 4 days
Dates: 24th to the 27th of March 2026
1PM - 5PM (London)
2AM - 6PM (Brussels)
5PM - 9PM (Dubai)
9AM - 1PM (New York)
9PM - 1AM (Beijing)
6:30PM - 10:30PM (New Delhi)
10AM - 2PM (Rio de Janeiro)
12AM - 4AM (Sydney)
6AM - 10AM (Los Angeles)
Location: Online
Price: 599EUR (349EUR with 40% Discount until the 1st of January)
Maximum number of participants: 25
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