Alejandro González Iñárritu:
"I went for the first time to the Cannes Film Festival to present "Amores Perros (2000). Actually, it was the first time ever I attended a film festival in my life. Our budget was so scarce that we decided to stay at a town 25 minutes outside Cannes since the rooms were much less expensive.
We arrived at 7:01 p.m. I put my jacket on. I felt the sweat running through my whole body. Smile! Flash! Click! Flash! Cheeeese! For a filmmaker, the experience of entering that legendary [Palais Des Festivals] with 2,000 seats is similar to that of a Catholic boy going into the Vatican. [From] all the way in the back, we watched "In the Mood for Love" on a screen 40 times bigger than us. Maria and I walked in complete silence for almost 10 minutes [afterward). We suddenly stopped by the sea. Maria hugged me and started crying inconsolably on my shoulder. And I did the same on hers. "In the Mood for Love" had left us speechless and deeply moved. It was that moment that reminded me why, even when it's so stupidly difficult sometimes, I wanted to become a filmmaker."