The maestro's mission: David Puttnam on his legacy, the left, and the future of film
![The maestro's mission: David Puttnam on his legacy, the left, and the future of film The maestro's mission: David Puttnam on his legacy, the left, and the future of film](/cms_media/module_img/7661/3830839_2_articlesmall_mb-david-puttnam-001_1_.jpg)
David Puttnam, Oscar-winning producer. Pic: Miki Barlok
We've all had a bad hair day, but not often at the very moment you’ve just scooped an Oscar for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
![David Puttnam, Oscar winning producer. Pic: Miki Barlok David Puttnam, Oscar winning producer. Pic: Miki Barlok](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7661/3830827_2_articleinline_mb-david-puttnam-002_1_.jpg)
“I met in July with Fiona and it all looked pretty worrying,” he says. “The worry bit was ‘where?’ We literally didn’t have a venue. I think she has done [an] incredible [job]. It struck me that there are more movies than ever, and more events than ever. I’ll be in and out three times, there are a couple of panel discussions. She is amazing, she is a force of nature.”
![Film producer David Puttnam and his wife Patsy at the Fastnet film festival in Schull, West Cork, in 2023. Picture; Eddie O'Hare Film producer David Puttnam and his wife Patsy at the Fastnet film festival in Schull, West Cork, in 2023. Picture; Eddie O'Hare](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7661/3830833_2_articleinline_EOHFastnetfest19.jpg)
![David Puttnam, photographed at the launch of his scholarship programme in UCC. Pic: Tomas Tyner David Puttnam, photographed at the launch of his scholarship programme in UCC. Pic: Tomas Tyner](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/7661/3830836_2_articleinline_18-130-7Q9A8757.jpg)
There is certainly something professorial about him, as the sign on his office door indicates, but also something of both an optimist and a hard-nosed realist; a man who argues that he was “appalling” at running a studio because he wasn’t a manager.