This year, I'm particularly happy for the movies that were in, that are coming out. I feel very not only honored, but it's just a pleasure to be with those so-called small movies.

I think this year is the year that small movies get attention because they deal with complexities, they go to the gray area. They deal with issues, and they ask questions; they don't really give resolution. That's the mood this year.

I look at American movies, the big muscles, and try to apply that to Chinese film-making.

Over the years Woodstock got glorified and romanticised and became the event that symbolised Utopia. It's the last page of our collective memory of the age of innocence. Then things turned ugly and would never be the same again.

There's a level of sophistication of filmmaking that's mind-boggling. Anything you need for your movie, there's an establishment that can make it happen really fast.

When there is a strong woman character in a story - that always grabs me.