Santa Barbara festival to run Denis Villeneuve retrospective

All 11 of the Villeneuve's films will be shown during the Santa Barbara International Film Festival, which runs from Oct. 18 to 24.

The Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF) will host a career retrospective on Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve.

All 11 of the Villeneuve’s films will be shown during the festival, which runs from Oct. 18 to 24.

The Quebec-born auteur, who is 56, gained international recognition initially for his French-language films, including Maelstrom (2000) and the Oscar-nominated Incendies (2010), which also dominated the Genie Awards (now Canadian Screen Awards).

Hollywood soon came calling and Villeneuve followed up his Canadian-made films with such English-language fare as Prisoners (2013), Sicario (2015) and 2017 Best Picture nominee Arrival.

Following Arrival, he helmed known IP such as Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024). Dune went on to nab six Academy Awards in 2022.

Villeneuve received the Canadian Academy Icon Award in May, which honours a Canadian for their global contributions to the media industry.

“Denis has become an unquestionable modern master of cinema, and all of his films demand to be seen on the big screen because they’re visceral spectacles. We are so enthusiastic about being able to show the films again together at the state of the art Riviera and to host Denis as well” said Roger Durling, executive director of SBIFF, in a statement.

Photo by George Pimentel