Veiko Õunpuu

“Making a film is a lot of headaches; takes a lot and a lot of time and you yourself might change your views on the world and the state of things many times during the whole process... but you can create a world that has an opportunity to stand (at least for couple of hours) as equal to that world we inhabit. I believe that to be of some value.”

Aku Louhimies

Edgar Reitz

“In my film work it is always important to have a completely authentic way of describing people’s situations. I use people’s own personal experience, their surroundings and the way they lived.”

Artour Aristakisian

Filip Remunda

Simon Staho

František Vláčil

“I never worked as anyone's assistant director nor did I ever study at any film academy, thus the Army Film Division was my 'trade school'.”

Marek Najbrt

Aleksandr Rou

Laila Pakalniņa

Sergei Loznitsa

“I want my films to urge the viewers to move towards self-knowledge, self-awareness, and awareness of certain important things that they never considered before. This is of the greatest importance to me.”

Aki Kaurismäki

“Cinema is dead. It died 1962, I think it was in October!”

Věra Chytilová

“I have no desire to cuddle my audience.”

Kornél Mundruczó

“I come from a theatrical background, and I'm convinced that it's in fact the audience which determines whether the film works or not.”

Petr Václav

Doris Dörrie

Sergei Dvortsevoy

“Documentary for me is like some kind of absurdity. The worse for people it is, the better for the director. At the same time, the most interesting films you see are on the borderlines. Documentary is only on the borderlines for me.”

Andrei Zvyagintsev

“As an art-house director I am supposed to hate mainstream films but I saw Peter Jackson's King Kong and liked it. I even cried when I was watching it although in my opinion this film has no artistic value at all.”

Lucian Pintilie

“What is the survival strategy of a community in a state of perpetual catastrophe?...And when does making fun—the assumed irresponsibility, the dark humor that we, Romanians, are so proud of—stop being an impenetrable shield? This is the number one matter in all my movies.”

Avi Mograbi