Ahmad's films are deeply inspired by the Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu and display scenes of everyday life with a depth of emotion. The Yasmin Ahmad… - Yasmin Ahmad

A filmmaker who could take on serious topics such as racism and intolerance with wit, intelligence and humour, who documented and celebrated Malaysian multiculturalism, exploring its taboos with compassion.

For me today, the most important filmmaker alive, for me personally is Pedro Almodóvar. Because he takes people on the fringes of society and they are bizarre. And If you read about them in the newspapers, you would think they were criminals. But in an Almodóvar film, you forgive them and you even learn to love them, which I think is closer to godliness, than making a film about good people running around.

There is something very important we have to realize and understand from Yasmin's commercials; something that reminds us that we're actually made of the same blood. We are all the same: boy or girl, women or men, women's rights or men's rights. There's no difference; ultimately we're all human and we all have rights. Her commercials allow us to reflect on that common ground.