question: Is Mike Leigh an actor? answer: Actor and writer paragraph: LONDON, England (CNN) -- British filmmaker, screenwriter and playwright, Mike Leigh has been in the movie business for over 35 years. Leigh on screenwriting: "I don't make a conventional screenplay ... it's a whole organic process." In that time, he has been nominated for five Oscars, as well as winning the Best Director award at Cannes Film Festival for "Naked" in 1993, the Palme d'Or there for "Secrets & Lies" in 1996 and the Leono d'Oro at Venice Film Festival in 2004 for "Vera Drake." Famous for his fierce independence (read refusal to work in Hollywood), Leigh's work is known for gritty realism and a focus on underprivileged sections of British society. Another of Leigh's calling cards is an unconventional approach to screenwriting. "The Screening Room" caught up with the veteran director at the International Screenwriters' Festival in the UK earlier this year to ask him more about his approach to making films. The Screening Room: Why is this festival so important to you? Mike Leigh: I am a filmmaker who is both a writer and director and I have this way of making films where the writing and the actors and the shooting is all combined together. I don't make a conventional screenplay ... it's a whole organic process. TSR: What do you think other scriptwriters can learn from you? ML: I think screenwriters who, because of the politics and economics of the film industry, are forced to work in a much more conventional way, are always fascinated to discuss with me how I work. TSR: There is this romantic idea that screenwriting has to be a painful, solitary experience. That's not what you experience, though. 