Damien Chazelle Quotes

There are always at least five good films at the end of the year to get nominated, but generally speaking nowadays, it's more of the independent films that are recognized.

One of the more noble things the Oscars can do is pay attention to movies no one knows about. Blockbusters don't need much help.

You could just do independent movies, but I like bigger kind of studio movies, at least some of them.

To go to the Oscars for 'Moneyball' - that was pretty amazing.

'Five Easy Pieces,' 'Easy Rider' - those are indie pictures; those were not studio pictures. They had relationships with studio distribution, but they were indies.

Well, honestly, the films I personally like to go see are smaller, more character-driven pieces, so that's why the movies I've made have been smaller, more character-driven movies.

If you are looking for smart judging based on merit, skip the Academy Awards next year and pay attention to the Independent Spirit Awards.

There are definitely strictly independent movies. 'Gummo' is one. Another is one I made, 'Fresh,' a $3 million movie which Boaz Yakin directed.

I was making a lot of independent movies before the independent movement.

I do sort of gravitate towards smaller, indie-type movies.

The films Sony Pictures Classics has distributed throughout the years have been of great inspiration to me. I'm very excited to find such a great home for 'The Rider.'

I'd made this film called 'This Little Life,' and it went round the fests and won awards and did well.

I started really idolizing people like Nicole Holofcener and Whit Stillman.

We want box office success, critical acclaim, awards and everything else. But I think when the audience likes a film, that appreciation is far more fulfilling, far more satisfying than any award.

I've done a lot of independent films that not a lot of people have seen.

Most of my work has been independent movies outside the mainstream system.

I've made a lot of very small movies that may not have had a large initial audience. Then it shows up on cable.

I loved all awards shows growing up, but of course, the Oscars was the biggest one.

There are wonderful films that become studio films, but they're conceived independently. That's where the action is. 'Being John Malkovich' is a great example of a picture you wouldn't think the studios would want, and it turns out to be a movie that touches everybody's heart.

Yes, I want to do good work. But just because a movie is small, it doesn't make it better. In fact, there are a lot of really horrible independent movies made.

There's a big difference between the independent film world and the Hollywood film world, and I don't know that I understood that until I got into certain rooms, and people's faces go blank when you talk about Sundance.

I've had something like seven films at Sundance, one of which won the Grand Jury Prize.

I don't expect to win awards while working in films.

Sundance is like a genre.

I made a movie in Germany called 'The Chambermaid' - it was very, very small. I think it cost €70,000 to make. I even put some money in and raised some money for it. It was real German arthouse... It goes, somehow, out there on the Internet, and it goes on iTunes.