Asif Kapadia presents Exploding Cinema as part of the film season.

1. Best Film of 20th Century

Raging Bull

2. Best Film of 21st Century so far...

City of God

3. Earliest Film Memory

Watching Grease with my brother and sisters in a cinema in Stoke Newington, which is now a Turkish mosque. At the time I thought the film was way too long and couldn't satnd all that singing.

4. Scene that changed your life

I was very young and switched over the TV late one Christmas and accidentally came across Hitchcock's Vertigo - I'd missed the opening and started watching the film during the long sequence where James Stewart's character follows Kim Novak around San Francisco in his car; to the flower shop, the museum, to the Golden Gate. I don't know how long the sequence was, but I remember being aware that there was no dialogue, only music and images, Jimmy Stewart's eyes watching her, I knew was seeing something special but I didn't know quite what. Years later, I realised that it was my first experience of 'pure cinema'.

5. Best going to the flicks experience

While still a young student at film school I was lucky enough to get a golden ticket to a Martin Scorsese master class at BAFTA in Piccadilly, fancy, but technically still 'the flicks'. Following the screening and talk I managed to speak to my hero and he signed my Scorsese on Scorsese book, as did the great Thelma Schoonmake.

6. Best director working today

Michael Haneke

7. Best actor working today

Irrfan Khan

8. Best actress working today

Gongli

9. Most exciting new film prospect

Just before Christmas I was in Dubai at the film festival as I was on the jury there, and one evening I found myself sitting at a table with a group of young filmmakers, young men and women from the Middle East: from Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Syria and Jordan and I was so excited to hear them speaking about the films they were making, and others they hoped to make. They had such energy and passion and I feel that there is a brilliant new generation of filmmakers to come from the region. There is no shortage of finance there, and with the work of the new film festivals in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha in particular, there will be a lot of chances for their work to be seen on the international stage.

10. Most interesting new development in cinema

I know it's not new but digital cinema projection is pretty amazing. As a filmmaker you complete a film you have spent years obsessively making and you know the release prints will never look quite the same, prints get scratched and dirty. There is always a worry the framing might be wrong, there will be a bad reel change or the image is slightly out of focus. Hopefully with digital projection, a film will always look the way the filmmaker intended.

11. Will watching movies on mobile phones take off?

You can't stop people watching on mobiles but I hope the old fashioned idea of sitting in a dark room with a big screen with a group of strangers lives on forever.

12. Are Hollywood's days numbered?

No, ... but the Indians, Asians and Middle-Eastern filmmakers and industries are coming ... and they have their own languages and audiences, so are not so reliant on Hollywood.