Gavin Hood
Gavin Hood
Gavin Hoodis a South African filmmaker, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for writing and directing Tsotsi, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed the films X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Ender's Game...
NationalitySouth African
ProfessionDirector
Date of Birth12 May 1963
although became famous finance hard holding onto period problem published setting written year
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.
mean thinking years
I think if you read the story as bad guy turns good guy, then clearly it is a cliché. But my experience, when I spent three years working with young people in the townships on issues principally around HIV/AIDS, is that people are usually neither entirely good or bad. They are usually variations of both. Just because someone is a carjacker doesn't mean they are a ruthless cold-blooded murderer.
free south together
Without what you did, we would not have been able to make this film together as South Africans in a free country.
cape excited
We are excited to be in Cape Town.
angeles arranged believed dialect drop impact language local los meeting name shooting speak youth
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.
african allowed exciting filmmakers hope industry south stories struggles whatever
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.
frozen people seen time
I was frozen in my seat. It was the first time I had ever seen people like me on the screen.
african buy genuine investor local money people south ticket
When you buy a ticket and when you buy a genuine DVD, you are an investor in South African film as your money is going back to people who invest in local films.
deep emotions fellow heart human stories thank
I want to thank my fellow nominees, who I've become deep friends with. We may have foreign-language films, but our stories are the same as your stories. They're about the human heart and emotion.
needs parents
My parents have been car-jacked. I have been mugged. We all know what it is like. But do you write a story about the way it is, or the way it should, or could, or needs to be?
emotions heart human stories
Our stories are the same as your stories. They're about the human heart and emotion.
hold proud tells
I feel very, very proud to hold this (Oscar) because it tells me, and all of us at home, that we can do it.
films grew hope watching
We grew up watching American films and I hope that Americans will watch our stories.
commit compassion drawn good great humans mixture theme
There's always a theme I'm drawn to, that we humans are not good or bad. We're all a mixture of both. We can have great compassion or commit great violence.