Quotes by Gavin Hood

“When you make a little film without stars and not in English, you [just] hope you get into international festivals, so we didnt know if wed get accepted in competition in Edinburgh or Toronto. Each [one seemed to bring] attention to the film to audiences around the world. We [originally] just wanted it to play in London, New York and Los Angeles like most small films do.”

“This may sound melodramatic but I have never, ever worked so hard. The film will be released in a different country every week for the next six weeks. Ive just come back from Germany, France and Sweden to be in LA for the nominations and to speak to the American press.”

“The first question after every screening is, Where can I buy the soundtrack?, and that definitely helps the movie.”

“When you dont have Tom Cruise, you need some help.”

“Im in Los Angeles, and like almost everyone in this crazy business of ours, I watched on TV bleary-eyed. Being the last film to be announced [in the category], my heart was pounding. One isnt quite prepared for something like this.”

“We arranged a meeting in Los Angeles with big name stars, but I had to drop the idea. I wanted to film in the local Soweto dialect that only Soweto youth can speak and believed that shooting in any other language would dilute the impact of the film.”

“Although it seems to be a ghetto movie, it very quickly becomes a much more intimate story, the story of this young, teenage, lost, crazy, out-of-control kid and a baby that he hides from his friends.”

“One of the struggles and one of the exciting things for South African filmmakers is: What stories are we allowed to tell? I hope for the industry that more and more, it will tell whatever stories it likes.”

“I was frozen in my seat. It was the first time I had ever seen people like me on the screen.”

“I feel very, very proud to hold this (Oscar) because it tells me, and all of us at home, that we can do it.”

Athol Fugard became famous as a playwright, so although Tsotsi the book was written in the 60s, it was only published in the 80s. It was then optioned pretty much every year by producers. I think the problem was that holding onto its period setting made it very hard to get finance.