Filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Justine Triet talked about their vision and their collaborations on Monday night before receiving Outstanding Director of the Year Awards for the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
Both of them are nominated for best director Academy Awards for their 2023 films: “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”
Scorsese, 81, talked about working with Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and visiting the Osage Nation for “Killers of the Flower Moon.”
The film is the first time Scorsese brought his two muses together, noted Scott Feinberg, executive editor of The Hollywood Reporter.
Scorsese and De Niro first worked on “Mean Streets” in 1973 and collaborated on “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” “Goodfellas,” “Casino” and “The Irishman,” to name a few.
Collaborations with DiCaprio gave him a second burst of moviemaking energy, Scorsese said, and that started with “Gangs of New York” in 2002 and continued with “The Aviator,” “The Departed,” and several more films.
Without giving too much away, Scorsese said the last scene between the two men in “Killers of the Flower Moon” took four or five months to write.
Scorsese has more Oscar nominations for best director than anyone else living, with 10, and won once for “The Departed.”
He recalled when “Taxi Driver” was nominated for multiple awards but not for best writer or director, and joked that “apparently it was made by itself.”
That’s when he realized, “it doesn’t matter because ultimately the real gift was getting to make the films,” he said to huge applause.
“As much fun as it would be to receive those things, it’s always best to remember, especially for younger people, it’s really the work.”
French director Triet, 45, co-wrote and directed “Anatomy of a Fall,” which stars Sandra Hüller as a woman accused of pushing her husband to his death.
“She was so special,” Triet said of Hüller, “so shy in real life and on fire on set.”
They previously worked together on “Sibyl,” a 2019 film that Triet directed and also co-wrote with her partner, Arthur Harari.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg asked Triet to share what really happened in “The Anatomy of a Fall,” and she joked that the mystery is an excuse for people to keep inviting her to events.
“I think I will speak in 10 years,” she said.
She said she would never have believed that she’d share the stage with Scorsese to receive a directing award, and she was happy to meet him.
SBIFF film screenings, industry panels and tribute events continue through Feb. 17.
