Arizona Marvelous Ideas: Xavier Dolan: Who Is the Canadian Movie Director?

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is garnering rave reviews for “Mommy,” a work that he has in competition for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

But how did the 25-year-old Montreal director come to be the toast of the world’s most prestigious film festival?

Dolan, a former child actor, presented a screenplay to prominent Quebec actress Anne Dorval when he was 16 years old, The Globe and Mail reports.

She called him back with suggestions, but he soon told her to forget that screenplay altogether. He had a new idea for a movie about a difficult relationship between a homosexual teen and his mother.

Dolan would play the boy and Dorval his mother.

That film, “J’ai tué ma mere (I Killed My Mother)” would become the toast of Cannes in 2009, taking three prizes in the Directors’ Fortnight section, including the Art Cinema Award and a writers’ award for top French film.

Dolan was also in the running for the Caméra d’Or prize for first-time filmmakers.

It’s been all uphill since then for the filmmaker, whose second film “Les Amour Imaginaires (Heartbeats)” screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2010 and won the Sydney Film Prize at that year’s Sydney Film Festival.

His subsequent film “Laurence Anyways” played Un Certain Regard at Cannes 2012, while his fourth film, “Tom à la Ferme,” (“Tom at the Farm”) was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 2013 Venice International Film Festival.

And now, just five years since he came on the scene, Dolan could win one of the world’s most coveted film prizes next to a Best Picture Oscar.

He has competition, with films by the likes of Jean-Luc Godard, fellow Canadian David Cronenberg, Ken Loach, and Mike Leigh also in the running for the Palme d’Or.

But what an achievement it would be to become the first Canadian ever to take the prize.

'Mommy' Director Xavier Dolan Speaks Diplomatically At Cannes