Denis Villeneuve

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Denis Villeneuve (2017)

Denis Villeneuve (born October 3, 1967 in Québec ) is a Canadian film director and screenwriter .

Life

Villeneuve was born in 1967 to Nicole and Jean Villeneuve and grew up in Gentilly, a district of the city ​​of Bécancour in the Canadian province of Québec . He has three younger siblings, including the future director Martin Villeneuve (* 1978).

He studied film at the Université du Québec à Montréal and then assisted the documentary filmmaker Pierre Perrault on a film shoot at the North Pole. After numerous music videos and short films, he made his debut as a feature film director in 1998 with The 32nd August on Earth . The film with Pascale Bussières and Alex Martin in the leading roles attracted international attention, including at the Viennale 1998. With Maelström, about a 25-year-old Canadian who runs over a Norwegian fisherman, he achieved his breakthrough in 2000. The extraordinary drama has won several awards and was the great winner of the Genie and Prix ​​Jutra 2001.

Despite this success, Villeneuve was dissatisfied with his first works and then withdrew from filmmaking for almost nine years.

Not until 2009 did he make another feature film with Polytechnique , which recreated the events of the rampage at the Montréal Polytechnic in 1989 . The decision to film the massacre was highly controversial in Québec.

His films August 32 on Earth and Maelström were already submitted as Canada's entries for an Oscar nomination in the category of Best Foreign Language Film , but neither was nominated. It wasn't until The Woman Who Sings - Incendies (2010) received an Oscar nomination in 2011 . The drama is based on the play burns from Wajdi Mouawad and tells the story of from the Middle East coming twins Jeanne and Simon Marwan (played by Mélissa Desormeaux-Poulin and Maxim Gaudette ), after the death of his mother (played by Lubna Azabal ) in return to her native land to find her missing brother and unknown father.

Villeneuve made his first English-language film in 2012 with the Canadian production Enemy based on the novel The Doppelganger by José Saramago . The main roles were played by Jake Gyllenhaal , with whom Villeneuve also worked in his next film, Prisoners (2013) .

With Sicario , first published in May 2015, Villeneuve shot his second American production after Prisoners . The thriller received outstanding reviews and was nominated at the 2016 Academy Awards in the following categories: Best Cinematography ( Roger Deakins ) , Best Film Music ( Jóhann Jóhannsson ) and Best Sound Editing ( Alan Robert Murray ). Talks about a planned continuation of Sicario took place in September 2015 .

In addition, Denis Villeneuve was confirmed in February 2015 as the director of the long-planned sequel to the science fiction classic Blade Runner . Blade Runner 2049 launched in theaters in October 2017.

In 2017 Villeneuve was nominated for an Oscar for directing the science fiction film Arrival . In the same year he received the British Fantasy Award for the film .

In 2018 he was appointed to the competition jury of the 71st Cannes Film Festival .

Denis Villeneuve is directing the 2020 film Dune , which was confirmed in February 2017.

Villeneuve is married to the Canadian journalist Tanya Lapointe and has three children from a previous relationship.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Commons : Denis Villeneuve  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joanie Mailhot: Pas d'attente pour Denis Villeneuve, mais beaucoup de fierté . In: lecourriersud.com of February 26, 2017.
  2. ↑ a b Cara Buckley: Denis Villeneuve of 'Arrival' Leans In to Strong Heroines . In: New York Times of November 10, 2016.
  3. ↑ Patrick Seyboth: Denis Villeneuve: We are the strangers . In: epd film from November 21, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Villeneuve, Denis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH 3rd October 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Quebec , Canada