Who do you think will when the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film?
This year? It’s difficult to say because we won the Goya. But like I say, it’s not mathematical. Of course sometimes it means it’s a film that Academy members like the most. But I think the process is absolutely clean as it is here in the states. It’s a question of taste. Like festivals, when you go to festivals and there is a jury and you can’t expect that me as a filmmaker, that I agree with the films that get the awards. But this is part of the journey, too.
Have you been to the Academy Awards before?
No. I’m excited. I always say it’s great when you get awards, and if you don’t, nothing happens. But considering that we’ve been here for two months, I’d love to get an Oscar and actually it would help the distributor. We know that awards mean more people will go and see the movie.
Should you win the Oscar, would you like to make films in the U.S.?
No, I don’t think it would work to make other kinds of movies. I always follow my instinct and so far I’ve been able to combine my personal vision and at the same time consider the audience when making my films. So I can say that my teachers are Hollywood teachers and European teachers, and I don’t think the Oscar will change that.
Have any American directors influenced your style?
Three. Stephen Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick – are the three directors that when I was a teenager, I used to analyze their movies and watch them over and over. Their perspective - I identified with them. In the case of Hitchcock, his use of suspense is something mathematical and my first three films “Tesis,” “Open Your Eyes,” and “The Others,” have something to do with that. And in the case of Kubrick, the search for simplicity. In Spielberg, the psychological and emotional connection. “The Sea Inside” has much more to do with Spielberg.
How do you feel about Pedro Almodóvar taking over in Spanish filmmaking?
Taking over - he has two Oscars and he’s a genius and an icon for Spanish culture and cinema. It happens with the awards every year and depends on many things. There is a submission process for a foreign language film and I always say maybe sometime the Academy members in Spain are wrong. But I’m sure they’re honest and the process is clean like it is here with the Oscars, but that doesn’t mean that getting the Spanish Goya, if you get it you have made the best Spanish film of the year. I don’t think winning the Oscar means you’ve made the best film of the year. So I don’t think it’s definite the fact that Almodovar doesn’t have a nomination this year. It depends on many things and the kinds of movie. “Bad Education,” for instance, is a quite a dark movie.
Will you continue taking a couple of years between each of your movies?
I can’t overlap projects. I really get obsessed with one story and I need to get it out of my mind to think about the next one. Like here, this film happened almost a year ago, but then promoting and talking about it, it’s impossible to think abut the next one. Right now in the spring, I’ll have a holiday and then start thinking about the next one. I’m never in a hurry. I love the feeling of not having anything to do.
Do you see yourself writing with other writers in the future?
This film was co-written with a friend of mine. “The Others” only by me, but I’m open. People send me scripts but so far I haven’t found one that I’m engaged with. But I’m open. The thing where I really rely on someone else is the music, because it takes me a lot of effort and I want someone else to offer me something different. I’m afraid of repeating myself.
How important is it for your Spanish culture that your movies are recognized by American audiences?
I think it’s what every director would want, being recognized abroad so that you can show your works all over the country. Although I don’t think I have the kind of position that Almodóvar has, which is great because he can make any kind of personal movies in Spanish and show them all over the world, and he’s successful at that. It’s really difficult in my case. Like “The Sea Inside,” which has been a huge success in Spain, but it’s difficult when it comes in other countries. People are reluctant in this country to see subtitled films.
