Denis Villeneuve

He was first married to Canadian film and television actress Macha Grenon. He has three children from his first marriage.

Presently, he is married to Tanya Lapointe, a cultural reporter.

Denis Villeneuve was born on October 3, 1967, in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada to Nicole Demers and Jean Villeneuve. He has a younger brother Martin Villeneuve who went on to become a TED speaker, screenwriter, director, actor, producer and art director.

Not much is known about the early and academic life of this ace director except the fact that he abandoned studying science, his initial choice, to pursue film study at the Université du Québec à Montréal following his love for filmmaking.

He directed the documentary film ‘La Course Destination Monde’ in 1988.

In 1990-91, he emerged as winner of the youth film competition ‘La Course Europe-Asie’ by ‘Radio Canada’ that qualified him for funds from the ‘National Film Board’.

His initial works saw him directing short films that included ‘REW-FFWD’ (1994) in which he also contributed as screenwriter.

The Canadian drama film ‘Cosmos’, an anthology of six short films, was released on November 15, 1996. A total of six filmmakers worked on the film writing and directing one segment each with Villeneuve contributing in the segment titled ‘Le Technetium’.

He then worked as writer-director of yet another Canadian drama flick ‘August 32nd on Earth’ that released on September 17, 1998. The film starring Pascale Bussières and Alexis Martin saw the latter winning ‘Prix Jutra’ award for Best Actor. The film was screened at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival in its ‘Un Certain Regard’ section.