Denis Villeneuve - French-Canadian film director, actor, screenwriter, producer, cameraman and editor. Winner of the Berlin and Cannes film festivals, nominee for the Academy Award, Cesar, British Academy, Saturn. Three times the winner of the Canadian film award "Gini" for best directing.
Villeneuve's creative biography began in the late 1980s, when he directed his first documentary. This work did not bring him fame, but two years later he received his first award at a cinema competition held by Radio Canada.
The audience is well acquainted with Villeneuve’s directorial works: Captives, Killer, Enemy, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049.
Facts from the biography
The future famous director was born in Canada in the fall of 1967. He has a younger brother Martin, who also decided to master directing with Denis.
Little is known about Denis' childhood. There is information that he did not attend a regular school, but studied at the seminary. After that he entered college, and then continued his education at the University of Quebec in the cinematography department.
Creative career
Denis began his directorial career with short films. He not only shot his first film, but also wrote a script for it. Then Villeneuve began shooting several short films at once, which were included in the project called "Cosmos". In addition to him, the work of several other young directors was presented in this project.
Two years later, Denis made the film "August 32 on Earth", where he acted as not only a director, but also a screenwriter.
According to the plot of the film, a girl named Simone gets into a car accident and miraculously remains alive. After that, she completely rethinks her life and is going to give birth to a child. Simone decides that the future father should be her best friend Philip. The young man agrees, but only on condition that they go to the Salt Lake City desert. This journey will bring them many discoveries, love, disappointment, trials and self-awareness. The film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival, but was not included in the number of applicants for the award.
A real breakthrough in Villeneuve’s career was the painting "Whirlpool", which received several cinematic awards at once.
The story told in this film is on behalf of a fish born at the time of the creation of the world. The story itself is this: the girl Bibian, returning home by car, knocks down a man and runs away from the scene of the accident. As a result, her entire future life turns into chaos. She even tries to commit suicide, but she does not succeed. Everything starts to improve only after she meets a Norwegian fisherman named Evian.
Denis's next film, called Polytech, also received several cinematic awards. He worked on its creation with J. Davids. The plot of the film takes place at the Montreal Polytechnic University. A young man is sent there on a typical winter day in 1989, who decided to arrange a massacre of students.
The next two works of the director - "Fires" and "Prisoners" - again received wide acclaim and were awarded several prestigious awards.
The fantastic film "Arrival" Villeneuve began to shoot after reading the novel "The Story of Your Life". The painting was awarded at the Oscars. The Film Institute named it the best film of the year.
Denis gained immense popularity after the release of the movie "Blade Runner 2049". The film was named the sequel to the famous 1982 film, starring Harrison Ford.
In 2020, the release of a new fantastic project of Villeneuve called "Dune" is planned.
