Simon Field obituary: adventurous British film programmer, producer and festival director

With the death of Simon Field at 80, the film world has lost a major figure whose highly personal vision of cinema’s potential as an artform fuelled his work as a teacher, editor, programmer and, finally, producer.

Having studied at Essex University and, later, the Slade, Field was a founding editor of the occasional film journal Afterimage, early evidence of a lifelong interest in experimental cinema. He also lectured on film and programmed, with David Curtis, two pioneering festivals of international avant-garde film at the National Film Theatre (now BFI Southbank). His involvement primarily with independent filmmaking continued until 1988, when he took over from Archie Tait as director of the ICA’s cinemas and distribution company. Working closely with Tony Rayns, Tait had established the ICA as the foremost exhibitor for the new Chinese cinema, a development Field happily took forward. Indeed, it was Asian cinema that became the venue’s trademark – it introduced, among others, the work of Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang, Wang Xiaoshuai, Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wong Kar Wai, Tsukamoto Shinya, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Kitano Takeshi, Im Kwon-taek and Abbas Kiarostami to the UK – though Field also programmed American ‘indie’ films and early features by non-Asian auteurs like Jan Svankmajer, Michael Haneke and Xavier Beauvois.

Given his cinematic passions and his success at the ICA, it was not surprising when Field was appointed, in 1994, director of the Rotterdam International Film Festival, where his keen eye for hitherto undiscovered filmmakers and curiosity concerning the unconventional and transgressive found expression both in the Tigers Competition for first features and in an Exploding Cinema strand exploring the relationship between film and other art forms. Hong Sang-soo, Christopher Nolan, Lou Ye and Miike Takashi were among Rotterdam’s prizewinners; Catherine Breillat’s controversial Romance (1999) premiered there; work by genuinely left-field auteurs like Raúl Ruiz and João César Monteiro was regularly screened; and Field, notwithstanding his characteristic modesty, was justifiably proud when he managed to get Stan Brakhage, Michael Snow and Peter Kubelka in attendance together at the 2002 festival. Drawing large audiences from the city, Amsterdam and elsewhere, and constantly pushing at the boundaries of cinematic representation, Rotterdam came to be regarded as one of the essential events in the European film calendar, attracting filmmakers, critics, programmers and distributors from around the world.

When, in 1994, he stepped down from his post in Rotterdam to move into production, he nevertheless continued as a member of the selection committee for the festival’s Hubert Bals Fund; he was also for some years programme advisor to the Dubai Film Festival. His prime focus, however, was his partnership in Illuminations Films with producer Keith Griffiths, an old friend with whom he’d collaborated on documentaries about the New York film scene. First, they produced six features and a short for Peter Sellars’ New Crowned Hope project marking the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. The selection was typically adventurous: Paz Encina’s Paraguayan Hammock (2006) was the first Paraguayan feature made by a woman; the other features were by Bahman Ghobadi, Tsai Ming-liang, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Garin Nugroho and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. All were impressive, the last three especially so. The encounter with Apichatpong was particularly significant: Illuminations were involved in the production of all his subsequent features (and many of his shorter works), including the 2010 Palme d’Or-winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Field continued working with Apichatpong on the latter’s next feature until days before his death. 

Field’s grasp of global cinema history and abiding desire to discover new films and filmmakers of interest made him an exemplary programmer. But his considerable success as a festival director and producer was due also to his level-headed unflappability and his oft-noted social skills. Despite his deep principles, he was famously good-humoured, warm, and generous with his time, knowledge and contacts. He was, therefore, not only much respected but enormously popular.

• Simon Field, 1946 to 2026