Two-time Oscar winner Christopher Nolan is currently in the spotlight for ‘The Odyssey’. The film, set for nationwide release this coming Friday, has received widespread acclaim following its preview shows. Some have even called it Nolan’s best film to date. However, Nolan himself has openly praised two films that created a sensation a month ago—‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’—and their directors.

In an interview with ‘The Telegraph’, Nolan not only promoted his epic drama ‘The Odyssey’, but also openly praised the creativity of new filmmakers who have emerged recently. While some have commented on the nearly three-hour runtime of ‘The Odyssey’, he defended the length, saying that making a film real and vibrant takes time. He said, “When you set out on a world journey with a cast of thousands, it inevitably affects the film’s length.”

Nolan, expressing that a film must continually transform itself to remain vital and essential, openly praised two Gen-Z directors currently in the spotlight: Kari Barker (‘Obsession’) and Ken Parsons (‘Backrooms’). “We have such great new young voices who are shaping the film medium in their own way and are leading the next journey of cinema,” said the 55-year-old director. “These two can be presented as proof that things are moving in the right direction.”

Both of these horror films have achieved historic box office success. Barker’s ‘Obsession’, released on May 15, has already grossed over $400 million worldwide on a budget of just $750,000. After premiering at the Toronto Film Festival, it was acquired and released by the film distribution company Focus Features. It has become the highest-grossing ‘festival acquisition’ (a film purchased from a festival) in film history, and also the highest-grossing film ever for Focus Features.

Similarly, Parsons’ ‘Backrooms’ has also grossed over $350 million worldwide. At just 21, Parsons has become the youngest director ever to reach the top spot at the domestic box office.

“Both of these films are extremely mysterious and thought-provoking. I mean, some parts of ‘Backrooms’ are as abstract as David Lynch’s most avant-garde art. Yet young people haven’t tired of watching these films,” Nolan said, defending the length of his own film ‘The Odyssey’. “That’s why I’ve never accepted the argument that today’s youth are so distracted they can’t enjoy a three-hour Greek epic.”

Nolan also shared his views on the much-discussed AI technology. “I have never seen such a major technological leap (AI) so quickly and completely dismissed in my lifetime,” the ‘Oppenheimer’ director added. “A lot of energy has gone into bringing AI, but if you look at the response from that generation, they are completely rejecting it.”

Giving the example of his own children, who are about to turn 20, Nolan said their understanding of AI’s pollution has remained strict. “They understand what it really is very quickly. And it’s easy for them to identify it, because it has grown out of the online world they know so well.”

Clarifying that this does not mean every aspect of technology is useless or meaningless, he said, “But in the field of filmmaking, AI has arrived at a very wrong time. Because we are now returning to a phase where we are reviving the approach of presenting real stories that can be directly experienced, leaving behind an excessively virtual world.”

According to him, today’s audiences are already fed up with the glut of Marvel films based on computer-generated imagery (CGI). As a result, audiences are now reluctant to watch such big-budget films, and Nolan cites the success of ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ as examples. Nolan is not the only legendary director supporting new-generation talent. Previously, Steven Spielberg also praised these two directors and their films, and commended them for making films on a low budget.