Denis Villeneuve is a four-time recipient of the Canadian Screen Award for Best Direction, winning for Maelstrom in 2001, Polytechnique in 2009, Incendies in 2010 and Enemy in 2013.
17 Facts About Denis Villeneuve
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Denis Villeneuve was awarded the prize of Director of the Decade by the Hollywood Critics Association in December 2019.
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Denis Villeneuve's latest film, Dune, based on Frank Herbert's novel of the same name, premiered at the 78th Venice International Film Festival; the film received critical acclaim, was a commercial success at the box office internationally, and is his highest grossing film to date, and earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture, with the film itself winning a leading six Oscars at the 94th Academy Awards.
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Denis Villeneuve was born on October 3,1967, in the village of Gentilly in Becancour, Quebec, to Nicole Demers, a homemaker, and Jean Denis Villeneuve, a notary.
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Denis Villeneuve attended the Seminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivieres and later studied science at the Cegep de Trois-Rivieres.
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Denis Villeneuve studied cinema at the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
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Denis Villeneuve began his career making short films and won Radio-Canada's youth film competition, La Course Europe-Asie, in 1991.
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Denis Villeneuve cites Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, the Coen Brothers, Paul Thomas Anderson and Steven Spielberg as his main cinematic influences.
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Denis Villeneuve followed that up with the controversial, but critically acclaimed black and white film Polytechnique about the shootings that occurred at the University of Montreal in 1989.
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Also in 2011, Denis Villeneuve won the National Arts Centre Award.
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Denis Villeneuve followed Incendies with the crime thriller film Prisoners, starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal.
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Later that year, Denis Villeneuve directed the crime thriller film Sicario, scripted by Taylor Sheridan, and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, Daniel Kaluuya, and Josh Brolin.
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Denis Villeneuve subsequently directed his eighth film, Arrival, 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.
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Additionally, Denis Villeneuve will serve as an executive producer on Dune: The Sisterhood, a spin-off television series focusing on the female characters in the novel, for HBO Max.
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Denis Villeneuve is attached to direct a historical drama about Cleopatra for Sony Pictures and an adaptation of Arthur C Clarkes science fiction novel Rendezvous with Rama for Alcon Entertainment.
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Denis Villeneuve is married to Tanya Lapointe, a journalist and filmmaker, and he has three children from a previous relationship.
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Denis Villeneuve's daughter Salome Villeneuve is a filmmaker, whose debut short film III premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival.