Do we like Denis Villeneuve?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean record on harm and no scandals, but the public record on his views is thin, so it stops short of a 9 or 10.
Villeneuve is the eldest of four kids from Gentilly, Quebec, and the son of a notary and a homemaker. He was a sci-fi-mad teenager whose mates nicknamed him “Spielberg” for all the storyboarding. He started in science at college, then switched to film at the Université du Québec à Montréal.
He won a Radio-Canada competition, made shorts and music videos, then built a name at home with Polytechnique and Incendies. Hollywood came calling after that: Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049 and then Dune, which won six Oscars. Blade Runner flopped at the box office, so it hasn't all been smooth sailing.
On the harm test, there's honestly not much to report, and that's good news. He told the Venice crowd in 2021 that future generations will judge us on climate change, which is the right side of that argument. After criticism of the women in Blade Runner 2049, he publicly defended how he'd written them. We found no remarks from him against LGBTQ+ people, migrants or anyone else, and no run of films with people who push harm. The record on queer issues is thin, so that part is silence, not a stand.
On the good-person side, we found no lawsuits against him, no court outcomes and no allegations from established outlets. The closest thing to a stoush is him taking a swipe at superhero films, which isn't exactly a crime. He also backed Scarlett Johansson's 2021 lawsuit against Disney in a French-language interview, asking what would happen if the studios didn't honour contracts.
He talks like a collaborator, not a tyrant. Asked about Incendies, he said “The film is better when you listen to others.” He also said he had to put his ego aside and admitted he had “destroyed” the original play in a way to make the film. That's a bloke who knows the job isn't all about him.
The real good stuff is mostly on the job. He has been named an Officer of the Order of Canada and a Knight of the National Order of Quebec, and Dune took home six Oscars. We found no big charity record, so we won't pretend there is one. He's a craftsman who seems to treat people decently, and that's enough for a pass.