Directors

Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve was born on October 3, 1967 in Bécancour, Quebec, the son of Nicole Demers and Jean Villeneuve. He was educated at the Séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières and later studied at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Villeneuve began his career making short films and won the Radio-Canada's youth film competition La Course Europe-Asie in 1990–91. August 32nd on Earth (1998), Villeneuve's feature film directorial debut, premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. 


His second film, Maelström (2000), attracted further attention and screened at festivals worldwide, ultimately winning eight Jutra Awards and the award for Best Canadian Film from the Toronto International Film Festival. He followed that up with the controversial, but critically acclaimed black and white film Polytechnique (2009) about the shootings that occurred at the Montreal university. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and received numerous honours. Villeneuve's fourth film Incendies (2010) garnered critical acclaim when it premiered at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals in 2010. Incendies was subsequently chosen to represent Canada at the 83rd Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film and was eventually nominated for the award, though it did not win.


Villeneuve followed Incendies with the crime thriller film Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film screened at festivals across the globe, won several awards, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 2014. Following Incendies and Prisoners, Villeneuve won Best Director for his sixth film, the psychological thriller Enemy (2014), at the 2nd Canadian Screen Awards. In 2015, Villeneuve directed the crime thriller film Sicario, scripted by Taylor Sheridan, and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin  The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival  It screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2015 and went on to gross nearly $80 million worldwide. Villeneuve subsequently directed his eighth film, Arrival (2016), based on the short story Story of Your Life by author Ted Chiang, from an adapted script by Eric Heisserer, with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner starring. In February 2015, it was announced that Villeneuve would direct Blade Runner 2049, the sequel to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982). Scott served as the film's executive producer on behalf of Warner Bros. It was released on October 6, 2017 to overwhelming critical acclaim despite middling box office returns.


Villeneuve is set to direct the adaptation of Jo Nesbø's crime novel The Son,  as well as a new film adaptation of the novel Dune for Legendary Pictures.