Martin Villeneuve

Martin Villeneuve ([maʁtɛ̃ vilnœv]; born March 13, 1978) is a French Canadian screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and art director. 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 also the first (and so far, the only), TED speaker to come out of Quebec. He has worked for Cirque du Soleil as an artistic director for commercials and film.

Villeneuve was born on March 13, 1978 in Bécancour, Quebec, the son of Nicole Demers and Jean Villeneuve. 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 also 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.

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 Avrilhas 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 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.

Among other projects, Villeneuve is currently 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.

In November 2019, it was announced that Martin Villeneuve was part of the 2020 speakers lineup at C2 Montréal, along with François Schuiten.

He shot some sequels to his short film Imelda, with Robert Lepage and Ginette Reno, to be released in Fall 2020.

He is the younger brother of filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

Graphic novels

• Mars et Avril, tome 2 : À la poursuite du fantasme, photo-novel, photography by Yanick Macdonald, Éd. Diesel & la Pastèque, 2006
• La voix du tonnerre, comic book, illustrations by Daniel Svatek, Éd. Les 400 coups, 2004
• Mars et Avril, tome 1, photo-novel, photography by Yanick Macdonald, Éd. Les 400 coups, 2002 (revised version published by Diesel & la Pastèque in 2006)

• 2020: Imelda & Simone (short)
• 2020: Imelda & The Notary (short)
• 2020: More of the World (music video)
• 2019: The Crab: Prelude to Aquarica (short)
• 2016-2017: Real Detective, Season 2 (TV series, 2 episodes)
• 2014: Imelda (short)
• 2013: Martin Villeneuve: How I made an impossible film (TED Talks)
• 2013: The Mars & Avril Experience (Making of)
• 2012: Mars et Avril / Mars and April (feature)
• 2011: Two Immortals: Prelude to Mars and April (short)
• 2003-2013: Cirque du Soleil – Advertising & documentary shorts
• 2002: Jouisseland by Jean Leloup (music video)
• 2000: Chrysanthème (short)

• 2015: Martin Villeneuve won the Union des Artistes’ Best Actor Award at the 12th Prends ça court ! Gala for his role in Imelda, in which he plays his own grandmother.
• 2014: Imelda won Quebec’s Best Short Film Award at Festival Images en vues, as well as a Special Mention from the jury in the category Best Canadian Short Film at the FICFA.
• 2013: Martin Villeneuve gave a TED Talk about Mars et Avril – Quebec's first science fiction film – at TED2013, thereby becoming the first (and so far the only) French Canadian speaker invited to this prestigious event that took place in Long Beach, California.
• 2013: Mars et Avril received nine nominations in Canada (four at the Canadian Screen Awards and five at the Jutra), including one for best adapted screenplay. The film's music, composed by Benoît Charest, won the Felix in the category "Album of the year – original soundtrack" at the ADISQ Gala.
• 2012-2013: Mars et Avril was screened in more than twenty international film festivals among the most prestigious (Karlovy Vary, Mill Valley, FNC Montreal, Mumbai, Whistler, Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, Sci-Fi London, etc.), and won an Imaging the Future Award at the Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival in Switzerland as well as an honorable mention at the Boston Science Fiction Film Festival for "incredible post-production work."
• 2011: Applied Arts Award, category "Advertising Photography – Series" for the exhibition "Dieu(X) Modes d'emploi," at the Musée de la civilisation de Québec.
• 2011: Grafika Award, category "Affiche culturelle – série" for the exhibition "Dieu(X) Modes d'emploi," at the Musée de la civilisation de Québec.
• 2008: We Love Books: A World Tour | The Best in Independent Publishing and Graphic Design: Mars et Avril volumes 1 & 2.
• 2008: Gutenberg Award, category "Books": Mars et Avril volume 2.
• 2007: Nominee, Lux Award, category "Books": Mars et Avril volume 2.
• 2006: Alcuin Society Book Design Awards, category "Prose Illustrated": Mars et Avril volume 2.
• 2004: Nominee, Bédélys Award: La voix du tonnerre.
• 2003: Nominee, Grafika Award, category "Books": Mars et Avril volume 1.
• 2002: Honorable mention, Alcuin Society Book Design Awards, category "Pictorial": Mars et Avril volume 1.
• 2002: UQAM-Diesel Award for the quality of the portfolio.
• 2002: He designed film posters, most notoriously the one for Québec-Montréal showing the pictograph of a moose screwing a car, which earned him the Travelling Laurentides Award for best launching campaign.
• 2001: Nominee, Création Vidéo Award, Clermont-Ferrand Vidéo Formes Festival (France): Chrysanthème (short).