Film-making with Micheal Flaherty

About the events

Speaker: Micheal Flaherty - Co-Founder and President of Walden Media for fifteen years; Co-Founder of Think Again Studios and Producer of several films that have won awards ranging from the Sundance Audience Award to the Cesar.

Event dates: Fridays 6th & 13th June. While you are encouraged to attend the pair of seminars, each is a standalone event that can be booked and attended on its own. 

Event time: 2:00-5:00 each day with a refreshment break 3:15-3:45.

Venue: Wycliffe Hall, 52-54 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6PW

Getting here: Wycliffe Hall is on major bus routes. Limited parking may be available on site (please contact us by email if you have any special access requirements) and pay-and-display on-street parking is available close by in Norham Gardens. 

Refreshments included: Tea and coffee

Photography & Filming: This event will include photography and filming, please contact us directly if you have any questions about this. conferences@wycliffe.ox.ac.uk

Booking to attend

To book your place: The course is FREE and open to the public. Please book on the individual session(s) you wish to attend via the following links:  

• To book seminar #1 
• To book seminar #2 

Seminar outlines

Seminar #1 (Friday 6th June)

FROM FILM THEORY TO FILM REALITY

A Practical Toolkit for People Who Actually Want to Make Movies

This session is a fast-paced, practical crash course in the real-world process of getting a film made—from pitch deck to picture lock.

Description:
In his 25 years of producing dozens of films that grossed over $3 billion at the international box office, Micheal Flaherty has met two kinds of producers. One works in the “talking about making movies” business. The other works in the making movies business. This seminar is for people in the second camp. Flaherty won’t just talk about movies—he’ll equip you with the tools you need to actually get them made. From budgets and casting to production timelines and distribution strategy, this is a hands-on, practical session for anyone ready to move from academic theory to on-set reality.

Seminar #2 (Friday 13th June)

THE NEW RENAISSANCE: RECLAIMING STORYTELLING FOR A FRACTURED AGE

How Christian Filmmakers Can Lead in a Time of Creative Disruption

Born in chaos, the first Renaissance changed the world—this lecture explores how Christian filmmakers can help lead the next one.​​​​​​

Description:
The original Renaissance was born from crisis—plagues, political instability, and the disruptive power of the printing press. Our current era faces similar upheaval, with collapsing media models, digital fragmentation, and a rising hunger for meaning. Micheal Flaherty—co-founder of Walden Media, the production company behind The Chronicles of Narnia films—addresses this era of cultural volatility.  He issues a creative call: not for more “Christian films,” but for a new generation of filmmakers who are Christian, crafting stories marked by beauty, excellence, and conviction. This seminar explores how faith can inform—not dominate—art, and how this generation of storytellers might just spark a New Renaissance of their own.

About Micheal Flaherty

In 1999, Micheal co-founded Walden Media with a mission to create films from books that celebrated the transformational power of education. He served as President for fifteen years. During that time Walden Media developed, financed and produced nearly two dozen films that grossed over $3 billion at the Global Box Office. These include The Chronicles of Narnia, Charlotte’s Web, Holes, Because of Winn Dixie and Bridge to Terabithia.

Walden also developed a curriculum for each film, donated over 1 million books to schools and started its own publishing imprint that discovered several new authors, including Ingrid Law whose first book - Savvy - went on to win the Newbery Medal.

After releasing The Giver, Micheal retired from Walden to create a new company with a stronger focus on education and emerging media such as podcasts. He co-founded Epiphany Story Lab to create the next generation of inspirational films and to teach the next generation of inspirational filmmakers via classes and seminars.

Through parent company Think Again, Micheal Flaherty is building a new entertainment ecosystem starting with podcasts and expanding to other platforms. 

Micheal continues to executive produce films independently, including Mother's Day starring Julia Roberts, and the Cesar Award-winning animated film The Little Prince. In 2018, he was an Executive Producer on I Can Only Imagine, the top-grossing independent film of that year. In 2022 he released Tiger Rising, based on Kate DiCamillo’s book and starring Queen Latifah and Dennis Quaid.