Denis Villeneuve to receive NAC Award as part of Governor General's Performing Arts Awards celebration
Toronto (Canada) — Canada’s National Arts Centre (NAC) announced today it is presenting the prestigious 2011 National Arts Centre Award to Quebec filmmaker and Academy Award nominee Denis Villeneuve. Mr. Villeneuve is one of Canada’s fastest-rising stars on the international film scene, having directed Incendies, one of five nominees in the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards presented on February 27, 2011.
The National Arts Centre Award, given out annually as part of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards, recognizes work of an extraordinary nature and significance in the performing arts by an individual artist and/or company in the past performance year. Mr. Villeneuve will be honoured on May 14, 2011 during the awards gala at the National Arts Centre.
Acclaimed by international film festivals, audiences and critics alike for his exploration of the darkest aspects of the human experience, Mr. Villeneuve spent four years working on Incendies after first seeing the play in 2004. Describing his reaction as a coup de foudre (literally, “a thunderbolt”), he immediately approached the NAC’s Artistic Director of French Theatre, Wajdi Mouawad, for permission to adapt his play into a film. “Wajdi gave me carte blanche, total freedom. It’s the best gift I have received in my life, artistically,” said Mr. Villeneuve.
“The people who worked with me to create the play are as delighted as I am with his success,” said Mr. Mouawad, “for through these two different works we share the same love for the same story.”
Incendies has blazed a dazzling trail: it premiered at La Mostra in Venice, screened to rave reviews at the Toronto, Telluride and Sundance Film Festivals, won the Toronto and Vancouver Film Critics Awards for Best Canadian Film, was named one of the Top Five Foreign Films of 2010 by New York’s National Board of Review, and was nominated for 10 Genies, in addition to the Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
“Denis Villeneuve has generated excitement all over the world over the last year,” said Peter Herrndorf, the National Arts Centre’s President and CEO. “From Venice to Hollywood, audiences have been moved by Mr. Villeneuve’s powerful film Incendies. We are proud he’s taken this thought-provoking play and transformed it into a film that engages audiences in a discussion about the intersection of war, family, and ultimately, understanding.”
Mr. Villeneuve’s previous film, Polytechnique (2009), a cinematic retelling of the 1989 shooting of 14 women students at Montreal’s École Polytechnique, swept the Genie Awards, winning in nine of the 11 categories in which it was nominated (including Best Motion Picture and Best Director), and won the Toronto Film Critics Award for Best Canadian Film.
His earlier works have premiered at prestigious international film festivals to unanimous critical acclaim: Rewind/Fast Forward (documentary short, 1994), 32nd Day of August on Earth (1998), Maelstrom (2000), and Next Floor (short, 2008). Together they have garnered over 80 awards.
Denis Villeneuve was born in 1967 in Gentilly, Quebec. Fascinated from a young age by the art of storytelling, he made his first short films while still in high school and went on to study communications at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
Previous winners of the National Arts Centre Award include Yannick Nézet?Séguin, Paul Gross, The Tragically Hip, Richard Bradshaw, k.d. lang, Rick Mercer, Marie Chouinard, Angela Hewitt, La La La Human Steps and its artistic director Edouard Lock, Cirque du Soleil, Mario Bernardi, Denis Marleau, Karen Kain, Jon Kimura Parker, Ben Heppner, Robert Lepage, Michel Marc Bouchard and Les Deux Mondes, and Gilles Maheu and CARBONE 14.
The NAC Award recipient is chosen annually by a jury of National Art Centre program executives. The recipient of the award receives a cash prize of $25,000, an original work of art by Quebec-based artist Paula Murray, and a commemorative medallion struck by the Royal Canadian Mint.
For more information, please contact:
Rosemary Thompson
Director, Communications and Public Affairs
National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000, ext. 260
(613) 762-4118
Carl Martin
Communications Advisor
National Arts Centre
(613) 947-7000, ext. 560
(613) 291-8880