Known for Directing
Denis Villeneuve (born October 3, 1967) is a Canadian filmmaker. He has received seven Canadian Screen Awards as well as nominations for three Academy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and two Golden Globe Awards. Villeneuve's films have grossed more than $1.8 billion worldwide. Villeneuve began his career in his home country, directing four French-language dramas: August 32nd on Earth (1998); Maelström (2000); Polytechnique (2009), a dramatisation of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre; and Incendies (2010). The last of these gained him international prominence and earned a nomination for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He expanded to English-language films by directing the thrillers Prisoners (2013), Enemy (2013), and Sicario (2015). Villeneuve gained wider recognition for directing science fiction films. His work on Arrival (2016) earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Director. This was followed by Blade Runner 2049 (2017), which was critically lauded but financially unsuccessful. His next projects were Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024), a two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel of the same name. Both films were critically and commercially successful, with the former earning him Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture.
Born
October 3, 1967 (age 58)
Birthplace
Gentilly, Québec, Canada
Filmography
70 films, 13 shows


Dune: Part Three
2026 · 2h 20m
country: United States
Emperor Paul Atreides faces the fallout from his ascent to power as political plots and a galaxy-wide holy war endanger the future only he can see.


Dune: Part Two - An Ensemble for the Ages
2024 · 22m
country: United States
Reunite with actors as they discuss their character’s arc and how new faces are woven into the story of Dune. Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Austin Butler and more open up about the process to explore themselves in the sands of Arrakis.


Dune: Part Two
2024 · 2h 47m
country: United States
Follow the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a path of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family. Facing a choice between the love of his life and the fate of the known universe, Paul endeavors to prevent a terrible future only he can foresee.


Dune
2021 · 2h 35m
country: United States
Paul Atreides, a brilliant and gifted young man born into a great destiny beyond his understanding, must travel to the most dangerous planet in the universe to ensure the future of his family and his people. As malevolent forces explode into conflict over the planet's exclusive supply of the most precious resource in existence - a commodity capable of unlocking humanity's greatest potential - only those who can conquer their fear will survive.


Blade Runner 2049
2017 · 2h 44m
country: Canada
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K, unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard, a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.


Arrival
2016 · 1h 56m
country: United States
Taking place after alien crafts land around the world, an expert linguist is recruited by the military to determine whether they come in peace or are a threat.


Sicario
2015 · 2h 2m
country: United States
An idealistic FBI agent is enlisted by a government task force to aid in the escalating war against drugs at the border area between the U.S. and Mexico.


Enemy
2014 · 1h 31m
country: Canada
A mild-mannered college professor discovers a look-alike actor and delves into the other man's private affairs.


Prisoners
2013 · 2h 33m
country: United States
After his six-year-old daughter is abducted, a desperate father takes justice into his own hands when he loses faith in the detective leading the investigation, setting both men on a collision course as the search descends into obsession and moral compromise.


Empirical Study on the Influence of Sound on the Persistence of Vision
2011 · 1m
country: Canada
An experimental short about the relationship between music and color.


Rated R for Nudity
2011 · 3m
country: Canada
A playful stab at mass hypnosis. Celebrating the mesmerizing power of movies, mischievous glimpses into a subconscious world inhabited by Bergman, Spielberg... and Bo Derek.


Incendies
2010 · 2h 11m
country: Canada
A mother's last wishes send twins Jeanne and Simon on a journey to Middle East in search of their tangled roots. Adapted from Wajdi Mouawad's acclaimed play, Incendies tells the powerful and moving tale of two young adults' voyage to the core of deep-rooted hatred, never-ending wars and enduring love.


Polytechnique
2009 · 1h 17m
country: Canada
A dramatization of the École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, on December 9, 1989, where 14 female engineering students were murdered (and 13 were wounded) by a 25 year old psychotic misogynist armed with a semi-automatic weapon.


Next Floor
2008 · 12m
country: Canada
During an opulent and luxurious banquet, complete with hordes of servers and valets, eleven pampered guests participate in what appears to be a ritualistic gastronomic carnage. In this absurd and grotesque universe, an unexpected sequence of events destabilizes the endless symphony of abundance.


Happiness Bound
2007 · 1h 31m
country: Canada
Poetry and cinema merge as 11 filmmakers bring to life 21 poems by Québécois poets.


120 Seconds to Get Elected
2006 · 2m
country: Canada
A politician has just a couple of minutes to convince people to vote for him, and tries to seduce his audience with promises he thinks they want to hear.


Maelström
2000 · 1h 27m
country: Canada
A young woman's life spirals into chaos after she is involved in a hit-and-run accident. Then she encounters a mysterious man named Evian who offers her an opportunity for redemption. Narrated by a fish.


August 32nd on Earth
1999 · 1h 28m
country: Canada
After escaping unscathed from a car accident, photo model Simone decides that having a baby is the only way to give her vacant life some meaning. She asks her best friend Philippe to get her pregnant, and he reluctantly agrees, on the condition that they conceive somewhere in a desert, so they leave Montréal on a 24-hour round-trip to Salt Lake City to find a suitable spot.


Cosmos
1996 · 1h 39m
country: Canada
Through an immigrant cab driver, our world collides with a nervous filmmaker, a lawyer whose new breasts her ex-boyfriend wants to see, a mystery man, a gay man who might or might not have AIDS, and a birthday girl who got stood up. It is a mixture of laughter and sadness, all floating on a sea of philosophy.


REW-FFWD
1994 · 31m
country: Canada
A young photographer is on assignment in Jamaica. It's a cultural shock! First anguished, he later becomes quite fascinated by the people he meets, their neighbourhood and their music.


L'ozone n'a qu'une bosse
1991 · 4m
country: Canada
The last film Denis Villeneuve made during his participation in the third season of La Course Destination Monde, a show broadcast on Radio-Canada in which contestants travelled to different regions of the world to make short films about their journeys. This was presented in the Gala episode to mark the end of the program, before Villeneuve recieved his award for being the winning participant.


Land of Men
1991 · 3m
country: Canada
Denis Villeneuve created this film during his participation in the third season of La Course Destination Monde, a show broadcast on Radio-Canada in which contestants travelled to different regions of the world to make short films about their journeys. During the penultimate program broadcast on March 25, 1991, the young filmmaker presented Terra Des Hommes as his closing film. Shot in Tibet, the short introduces us to a community that lives among Yaks, large ruminant mammals. Chantal Jolis, a judge of the competition, said of the film: "What I felt there was a farewell to something essential, at the same time as a testament to the race." Villeneuve ulitmately won that year's edition of La Course Destination Monde. Notably, the film features the track "Trip to Arrakis" by TOTO, composed for David Lynch's 1984 adaptation of Frank Herbert's DUNE. Villeneuve would later go on to helm his own adaptation of the novel and it's sequel, DUNE Messiah.


Black Ink
1991
country: Canada
Denis Villeneuve created this film during his participation in the third season of La Course Destination Monde, a show broadcast on Radio-Canada in which contestants travelled to different regions of the world to make short films about their journeys. It premiered on the episode broadcast on January 14th 1991, alongside behind the scenes footage of Villeneuve translating his words into English, and the producers in Canada. The short appears to have been filmed in Tokyo, and features some of Vangelis' score for Blade Runner (1982). Villeneuve would go on to direct the film's sequel, Blade Runner 2049. Publically, all that remains of this short is the behind the scenes footage released from Radio-Canada's archive.


In the Footsteps of the Camerosaur
1990 · 3m
country: Canada
Described as a self-portrait, this early auto-biographical short by Denis Villeneuve was presented by host Michel Désautels to introduce the young filmmaker before his participation in the The Europe-Asia Race. This was the title of the third season of La Course Destination Monde, a television programme broadcast on Radio-Canada in which contestants travelled to different regions of the world to make short films about their journeys.