Xavier Dolan

A twenty-year-old wrote, directed, produced and starred in this debut, which won three awards at Cannes and an eight-minute ovation. It follows a teenager’s stormy relationship with his mother as the boy works out who he is, and it’s where the career of one of cinema’s wunderkinds began. — Sixteen-year-old Hubert can’t stand the way his mother, Chantale, eats, drives or dresses, which is a problem when it’s just the two of them in a house in suburban Montreal. Every day brings a fresh row. At school, he tells his teacher that his mother is dead. — C.I.C.A.E. Award | Cannes Film Festival | 2009 SACD Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2009 Nominated for Golden Camera | Cannes Film Festival | 2009

Dolan (“Heartbeats”) packs emotion into music-video images that widen the square frame. Diane is too volatile for this world, her teenage son too intense, and Kyla too shy. Three impossible poles find tenderness in chaos and aggression. Scored by Céline Dion, Oasis, Bocelli, Lana Del Rey. — Diane collects her fifteen-year-old son from a psychiatric hospital. Steve is aggressive and impossible to control. Canadian law allows parents to commit a child to a closed facility without a court ruling, but Diane wants him to live with her. Across the street lives a shy and stuttering teacher on leave. Kyla starts tutoring the boy. One day, Diane is sued over something Steve did. — Jury Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2014 Nominated for Queer Palm | Cannes Film Festival | 2014 Nominated for Best Canadian Feature Film | Toronto International Film Festival | 2014 Best Foreign Film | César Awards | 2015 Official Selection | CAMERIMAGE Film Festival | 2014 FIPRESCI Prize | Palm Springs International Film Festival | 2015

Xavier Dolan leaves his pop style behind for a surprising turn towards Hitchcock. In his dead lover’s family home, Tom finds grief mixing with desire, and as the melancholy drama slides towards psychological thriller, Gabriel Yared’s superb score keeps raising the tension. — When Tom travels to the countryside for his boyfriend’s funeral, he finds that the family never knew he existed, and the mother is sure her dead son had a girlfriend. The older brother knows otherwise, and sets out exactly what Tom may say and what he must keep to himself. Over time the two men are bound by an almost sadomasochistic dependence, and Tom no longer wants to leave. — Official Selection | London Film Festival | 2013 FIPRESCI Prize | Venice Film Festival | 2013

Xavier Dolan, who seems dreamed up by cinema itself, was 21 when his second film premiered, and writing, directing, editing and starring in it made him one of the most talked-about names in French-language cinema. Two friends fall for one boy, but is it a triangle, a friendship or an obsession? — Francis, a sentimental gay man, and Marie, a brazen young woman who only ever dresses retro, are best friends, and they both fall for Nicolas, a beautiful boy who has just moved to town and keeps saying he only wants friends. Then, on a trip to the country together, Nicolas tells them straight out: love me or leave me. — Regards Jeunes Prize | Cannes Film Festival | 2010 MovieZone Award | Rotterdam International Film Festival | 2011 Best Film | Sydney Film Festival | 2010

Xavier Dolan was just 23 when he made this baroque melodrama, his third feature, which won the Queer Palm at Cannes. Laurence tells his partner he has always felt like a woman but doesn’t want to lose her, and the love story that follows spans ten years and nearly three hours. — It’s 1989 in Montreal, and on his thirty-fifth birthday Laurence, who teaches literature, tells his partner that he has always been a woman. Neither of them wants to leave the other. Everyone around them, though, has something to say about it. — Best Actress (Suzanne Clément) - Un Certain Regard | Cannes Film Festival | 2012 Queer Palm | Cannes Film Festival | 2012 Best Canadian Feature | Toronto Film Festival | 2012