Press Conference interview with Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, winners in the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category for The Imposter at the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2013.
Q. Please welcome the winners of Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis of The Imposter. Congratulations guys.
BART LAYTON: Thank you.
Q. How does it feel to win, because this is a pretty strong field first of all.
BART LAYTON: It feels insane. Hasn't settled in. Amazing.
Q. Dimitri?
DIMITRI DOGANIS: Yeah it's an extraordinary bunch of talented people and the best debut, you only get to make the first film once and you pull in so many favours because it's yours first film and you convince so many people to go above and beyond for you that I'm not sure we'll ever be able to do it again.
Q. This one you won't win again.
BART LAYTON: I thought we'd won it.
Q. You've got it now. This is an extraordinary tale. Can you talk about when you first stumbled upon it?
BART LAYTON: Yeah I found an article in a magazine that was gathering dust on a printer copy table and thought -- well, I kind of thought it must have been made as either a fiction film or as a documentary and did a bit of research into him, and then happened upon this very detailed story in which he had successfully stolen the identity of a kid who had been missing for about four years and we got in touch with him through his -- he had a YouTube account and we got in touch with him through that and brought him to London, didn't really know what the film was going to be at that stage but started talking about the idea of making a film and then we decided that it was so extraordinary that we should just start shooting before we had any finance so we did that shot with him.
DIMITRI DOGANIS: And before this known convicted imposter/liar/conman changed his mind, did something we couldn't foresee, while we had him we'd better get it done.
Q. Good point, good point. Any questions?
PRESS: Guys, congratulations. As you say you only make your first film once but now that you've won the Bafta what do you think it's going to mean in terms of what you do next? What your second film is going to be and where do you go from here?
BART LAYTON: I think I mean most of the work that we do or have done certainly me as the director, I think D as well, has been stuff that we've originated, that we've created ourselves or devised and I think we'll continue to do that but clearly this will open a lot of doors. It already has, you know, having amazing conversations with people who we would have given an arm to get in the door, you know.
Q. It's a good room to be in tonight?
BART LAYTON: It's a good room.
Q. Yes please.
PRESS: Just considering the battering that the British film industry keeps getting, do you think it would be easier for you to make more contact?
DIMITRI DOGANIS: I'm not sure about the kind of politics about what's happening in the British film industry. I think what we see around us is a lot of incredibly motivated, incredibly talented, highly-skilled people in this country and you see that because there are so many Brits both here, in America and elsewhere making amazing films. So I suppose it's difficult to say what it means in political terms but I definitely think that there is just this extraordinary pool of talented story-tellers, technicians and everyone in between.
Q. That's it, that's all the time we have I'm afraid. Thanks once again. Huge congratulations Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis for The Imposter. Thank you.
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EE British Academy Film Awards in 2013 – Winners Press Conference: Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
