MY FAVOURITE MOVIES: Arctic director Joe Penna

Having made a name for himself on YouTube, Joe Penna has now taken his talents into cinema, with a hugely promising debut from behind the lens, in the Mads Mikkelsen starring Arctic. When we spoke to the Brazilian filmmaker, we presented a whole new challenge though – for he became the latest talent to take part in our feature series where those within the industry tell us all about their favourite ever movies.

What’s the first film you ever fell in love with? Jurassic Park. I had the making of, and it got me into bioinformatics, I was going to be a surgeon but first I wanted to be the guy who was behind the computer.

What’s the one film you never get tired of watching? That’s a good one. It’s a film that I can study over and over again, and it’s relatively new, it’s called Arrival. It’s one of my favourite films just in general, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Denis Villeneuve in Cannes and I couldn’t shut up about Arrival. I thought it was so perfectly crafted and every time I see it, I see something different.

What’s your favourite soundtrack? I wish I didn’t say Arrival for the last one, because it’s that. Johan Johansson was just an incredible composer to me. So my second favourite movie soundtrack is Sicario, because I love that just as much.

What’s your guilty pleasure? Oh man. Ghost. Dude, I watched that on VHS maybe 15 or 16 times in Portuguese. I watched it recently in English, and I thought it was weird, I need to find the version that’s dubbed in Portuguese because I don’t know these voices, I don’t know these people.

What’s the one scene that always makes you cry? The end of Coco. When he starts playing the song for her, and Mama Coco wakes up and she’s like ‘I remember that song’. It gets me every single time. My son loves that movie, but I wish he’d watch something different, especially when I’m in a happy mood.

What’s your favourite ever film about survival? Ooof. Castaway, which has got to be my favourite film. Tom Hanks is one of my favourite actors, it’s made by one of my favourite filmmakers. Yeah, Castaway. I watched it when I was relatively young, so that’s gotta be one of my favourite movies in general, and definitely my favourite survival film.