Denis Villeneuve, this week’s guest on The Hollywood Reporter‘s Awards Chatter podcast (which was recorded in front of an audience at Chapman University), is a 54-year-old Canadian who is now one of a select few filmmakers in Hollywood who makes movies that are consistently embraced by both critics and audiences. After directing his first four features in Canada — three of them were the nation’s submission for what is now known as the best international feature Oscar, and one of which, 2010’s Incendies, was nominated — he began working in the United States. And in just the eight years since, he has, rather remarkably, helmed six major features: 2013’s Prisoners and Enemy, 2015’s Sicario, 2016’s Arrival, 2017’s Blade Runner 2049 and this year Dune, the film that he dreamed of making since he read Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel of the same name when he was just 13.
