The hottest director in Hollywood, Denis Villeneuve, came home to Montreal for a night of celebration on Wednesday, the day after he turned 50.
It was also–most of all–the Canadian premier of Blade Runner 2049, the multi-million dollar production he directed at an estimated cost of up to $180 million
It wasn’t the world premier. That took place in Los Angeles on Tuesday, but it says something about Villeneuve’s loyalty to his Quebec roots, that–at his insistence–the Canada’s first look at the film would be under the auspices of Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma.
“It’s one of the only festivals in the world where I can buy a ticket at random and know where I will never be disappointed–there will always be a spark, something singular and stimulating,” Villeneuve said over the weekend.
How hot is Villeneuve?
His last film, the 2016 Arrival, grossed $203 million worldwide and was nominated for eight Academy Awards.
One of his wingmen, Sylvain Bellemare, won the Oscar for best sound editing.
The Festival du nouveau cinéma has been around in various guises since 1971 and while there no verifiable statistics about how many future Quebec cinéastes felt the way Villeneuve did, it’s a pretty good bet there were many.
A lot of other Quebec filmmakers are making their presence felt these days.
Start with Jean-Marc Valée.
In September, he won an Emmy as best director of the extremely popular and much praised U.S. mini-series Big Little Lies.
In 2013, his film Dallas Buyers Club was a box office hit and critical success that saw Matthew McConaughey (best actor) and Jared Leto (best supporting actor), win Academy Awards.
Add Xavier Dolan, who won the prestigious second-place Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for his film Juste la fin du monde.
Other hotshots include Kim Nguyen, whose 2012 film War Witch (Rebelle) was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign language film category.
And Philippe Falardeau, whose Monsieur Lazhar was nominated in the same category for 2011
And Christian Duguay, whose latest film, Un sac de billes, is winning great praise in Europe.
Kevin Tierney has been a fixture on the Quebec film scene as a director (French Immersion) and producer (Bon Cop, Bad Cop) for over 30 years.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop is the highest-grossing Canadian film ever ($12,665,721) and won the Canadian film industry’s Genie Award for best picture in 2006.
Tierney is still producing (Park Ex Pictures) and is now writing a weekly column for the Montreal Gazette.
Seeking his take on Villeneuve, ValIée and the Quebec film industry, I spoke to him by phone on Thursday.
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