Denis Villeneuve is a French-Canadian film director, actor, screenwriter, producer, cameraman and editor. Winner of the Berlin and Cannes Film Festivals, nominee for the Oscar, Cesar, British Academy, Saturn. Three times winner of the Canadian Gini Film Award for Best Director.
Villeneuve's career began in the late 1980s, when he shot his first documentary. This work did not bring him fame, but two years later he received his first award at a film competition held by Radio Canada.
The audience is well aware of Villeneuve's directorial work: "Prisoners", "Assassin", "Enemy", "Arrival", "Blade Runner 2049".
Biography facts
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's childhood. There is information that he did not attend an ordinary school, but studied at the seminary. After that, he entered college, and then continued his education at the University of Quebec in the department of cinematography.
Creative career
Denis began his directing career with short films. He not only made his first film himself, but also wrote a script for it. Then Villeneuve began filming several short films at once, which were included in the project called "Cosmos". In addition to him, this project featured the work of several more young directors.
Two years later, Denis shot 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 Simona 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 her best friend Philip should become the future father. The young man agrees, but only on condition that they go to the desert of Salt Lake City. This journey will bring them a lot of discovery, love, disappointment, trials and self-realization. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, but was not nominated for the award.
A real breakthrough in Villeneuve's career was the picture "Whirlpool", which received several film awards at once.
The story told in this film is told from the perspective of a fish born at the time of the creation of the world. The story itself is as follows: 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 further life turns into chaos. She even tries to commit suicide, but she fails. Things start to get better only after she meets a Norwegian fisherman named Evian.
Denis's next film, Polytech, received several cinematic awards. He worked on its creation together with J. Davids. The plot of the film takes place at the Montreal Polytechnic University. A young man is sent there on an ordinary winter day in 1989, who decided to arrange a bloody massacre of students.
The next two works of the director - "Fire" and "Captives" - again received wide recognition and were awarded a number of prestigious awards.
Villeneuve began shooting the fantastic film Arrival after reading the novel The Story of Your Life. The picture was awarded at the Oscar ceremony. 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.
The release of a new fantastic project of Villeneuve called "Dune" is planned for 2020.
Personal life
Denis married twice. His first wife was the actress Masha Grenon. In this union, two children were born, in whose upbringing Denis takes an active part even after the divorce.
The second wife of the director was the journalist Tanya Lapointe.
