Denis Villeneuve

Acclaimed French-Canadian filmmaker, Denis Villeneuve earned worldwide attention for garnering a Best Foreign Language Film nomination at the 83rd Academy Awards® for his feature film Incendies, a drama about the legacy of civil war in Lebanon for a Montreal immigrant family. The French-language film is considered by the New York Times as one of the best movies of 2011.

In 2015, the Cannes Film Festival bestowed the Quebecois director's film Sicario with a nomination to compete for the coveted Palme d'Or. His first film to screen in the main competition follows an idealistic FBI agent portrayed by Golden Globe® winner Emily Blunt whose hunt for justice thrusts her into the dark heart of a lawless U.S. and Mexican border where drugs, terror, illegal immigration and corruption challenge her moral compass. Oscar® winner Benicio Del Toro and Oscar® nominee Josh Brolin also star. The film received three Academy Award® nominations for Best Achievement in Cinematography (Roger Deakins), Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score (Jóhann Jóhannsson) and Best Achievement in Sound Editing (Alan Robert Murray).

In 2012, Villeneuve directed his first English-language film, Enemy. The eerie thriller stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a history lecturer who discovers an unexpected alter ego. The actor's spellbinding performance won him critical raves and sealed the filmmaker's reputation as one of cinema's most exciting new voices. Adapted from a José Saramago novel and set in Toronto, Enemy collected the 2015 Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Canadian Feature.

Villeneuve made his Hollywood directing debut with Prisoners, a suburban-vigilante drama starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal. The film received a 2014 Oscar® nomination for Best Achievement in Cinematography and National Board of Review Awards for Best Ensemble and as one of the Top Films of the year.

Cannes and major international film festivals have embraced Villeneuve's films from early on in his career. In 2009 he helmed his third feature Polytechnique, a black-and-white French-language feature that dramatized the infamous massacre of 14 young women at Montreal's Polytechnique School of engineering in 1989. The film made its world premiere at the Cannes' Director's Fortnight. In Canada, the film was honored with the Best Canadian Film of 2009 by the Toronto Film Critics Association and awarded nine Canadian Screen Awards and five Jutra Awards (Quebec film awards), most notably for Best Director.

In 2008 Villeneuve's savory short film Next Floor was honored with the Canal+ Award presented at the Cannes' Critics Week. It was also shown in more than 150 festivals around the globe and reaped more than 50 awards.

His 1998 feature film debut August 32 on Earth (Un 32 août sur terre), starring Pascale Bussières, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, and was selected by over 35 film festivals including official selections at Telluride and TIFF.
Maelström followed, starring Marie-Josée Croze as a troubled young woman, and won the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at 2001 Berlin Film Festival, also taking home the SACD Prize from the Avignon Film Festival.

Paramount Pictures