“I think it's a great pity in the Anglophone world that we conflate cinema verite and Direct Cinema; they're, in fact, ontological opposites. In Direct Cinema, we create a fictional reality with characters and pretend we're not that.”

American and British film director, based in Copenhagen

Joshua Oppenheimer is an American and British film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Born Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer, he is known for documentary films that brought him wide attention, including The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, and for his 2024 narrative debut, The End. His films have earned major recognition, including Oscar nominations for The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. He was a Marshall Scholar in 1997 and received a MacArthur fellowship in 2014.