- Date de naissance : 13 mars 1978
- Nationalité :
Canada - Activités : Réalisateur, Scénariste
- Personne
Martin Villeneuve (French: [maʁtɛ̃ vilnœv]; born March 13, 1978) is a French Canadian screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and art director. He is known for the Imelda Trilogy of short films, in which he portrays his own grandmother. He was nominated at the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) in 2013 for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Mars et Avril, his feature film debut, and Quebec's first true science fiction movie. Villeneuve is the first (and so far, the only), TED speaker to come out of Quebec. He has also worked for Cirque du Soleil as an artistic director for commercials and film.
Early life
Villeneuve was born on March 13, 1978 in the village of Gentilly in Bécancour, Quebec, to Nicole Demers, a homemaker, and Jean Villeneuve, a notary. He is the youngest of four siblings; his older brother, Denis, is also a filmmaker. He was educated at the Séminaire Saint-Joseph de Trois-Rivières and later at the Collège Brébeuf in Montreal. He studied film production at Concordia University and graphic design at Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2002, he received an award from the commercial creativity agency Sid Lee for the quality of his portfolio. In the years that followed, he worked as an artistic director with this agency and created award-winning advertising campaigns for several Cirque du Soleil shows, including Zumanity, KÀ and Corteo. He found the name for these three shows, as well as for Guy Laliberté’s One Drop Foundation. When the agency (formerly known as Diesel) changed its name in 2006, Villeneuve had the idea for the anagram Sid Lee. He also directed numerous TV commercials for Cirque du Soleil, in addition to music videos and documentary shorts.
Career
Villeneuve began his career as a writer and graphic artist in 2002. He has created the comic book La voix du tonnerre (Les 400 coups, 2004), as well as the two graphic novels Mars et Avril (Sid Lee & la Pastèque, 2002-2006), which were all released to critical acclaim and multiple awards. In 2012, the feature film adaptation of Mars et Avril which Villeneuve wrote, directed and produced, was brought to the big screen with success. This science fiction movie, starring Jacques Languirand, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani and Robert Lepage, was released in Canada in Fall 2012. Mars et Avril toured in 20 international festivals, starting with a world premiere at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic, and received 10 nominations. Martin Villeneuve was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards, and he also won an Imaging the Future Award at the Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival in Switzerland.
On February 27, 2013, Villeneuve gave a TED Talk about Mars et Avril at TED, thereby becoming the first (and so far, the only) speaker from Quebec invited to this prestigious event that took place in Long Beach, California. Prior to his talk, the opening sequence of the film was shown, as well as a three minutes overview of the steps leading from the green screen to the final images. Villeneuve's talk, "How I made an impossible film," was released on TED.com on June 7, 2013, and a month later was added to TED's movie magic list, notably featuring directors James Cameron and J. J. Abrams. His talk has been subtitled in 31 languages and viewed more than a million times. Since then, Mars et Avril has been sold to the U.S. and is now available on GaiamTV. The movie is also featured on Amazon and iTunes in the U.S., Canada, Francophone Europe and the UK, among other digital platforms.
In 2014, Villeneuve made his acting debut in his short comedy film Imelda, in which he plays his own grandmother, for which he won the Union des Artistes’ Best Actor Award at the 12th Prends ça court ! Gala. In 2016-2017, he directed the first episodes of the second season of Real Detective for Investigation Discovery Channel and Netflix, starring Daniel Cudmore and Cristina Rosato.
On August 3, 2020, a 14-minute documentary short about filmmaker Martin Villeneuve, directed by Jean Benoit, was released online, featuring interviews with stage director Robert Lepage, illustrator François Schuiten and filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
Martin Villeneuve shot some sequels to his short film Imelda, released in festivals in Fall 2020. Imelda 2: The Notary starring Robert Lepage as Imelda's son had its world premiere and opened the Quebec City Film Festival on September 16, 2020, and won the Cinémental Award for Best Canadian Short Film 2020. Imelda 3: Simone starring Ginette Reno as Imelda's lifelong adversary had its world premiere and opened the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue on October 31, 2020. The Imelda Trilogy was publicly released online on December 21, 2020.
Villeneuve gave a one-hour storytelling masterclass for Goalcast, which went live on January 7, 2021.
Among other projects, he is working with European comic book masters Benoît Sokal and François Schuiten on an animated fantasy feature film, Aquarica. And he is teaming up once again with Schuiten in creating Waternova, an original sci-fi movie, in collaboration with James V. Hart.
Personal life
He is the younger brother of filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.
Films
| Titre | Activités | Genre |
|---|---|---|
| Mars & Avril | Réalisateur, Scénariste | Science fiction |
Sources
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