Xavier Dolan

Openly-gay Montreal film maker Xavier Dolan (b. 1989), who somehow managed to write and direct five well-received movies in as many years, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes* Film Festival for Mommy back in May, 2014. Mommy tells the story of a single mother raising a violent and troubled teenage son. They receive unexpected help and friendship from their shy neighbor, a female schoolteacher on sabbatical who suffers from a crippling stutter. This was Dolan's first film to achieve significant success at the box office, and it won the Cesar Award for best foreign film in 2015.

The Québécois director, writer and actor Dolan said in his acceptance speech:

“The emotion that I feel in contemplating this mythic room is overwhelming. I’m overwhelmed with gratitude, standing before this jury. I’ve received so much love over the last week. We do this work to love and be loved, as revenge for our imaginary loves...People are entitled to their own tastes, and some will dislike what you do; some will dislike who you are. But together we can change the world. By touching people, making they laugh and cry, we can change minds and lives. Not only politicians but artists can change it. There are no limits to our ambition. Everything is possible for those who dream, dare, work and never give up.”

Canadian Xavier, who speaks flawless, unaccented English, has nevertheless worked exclusively within the genre of French-language cinema. He has been compared to Woody Allen (only younger, cuter and gay!), because both make character-driven films about relationships, and both act in their own movies. At age nineteen (!), Dolan electrified the film world with I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère – 2009), a semi-autobiographical movie that he wrote, directed and starred in. The winner of dozens of awards, that film was about a young homosexual at odds with his mother.

Dolan’s Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme – 2013) dealt with a young gay man’s encounter with the family of his recently deceased lover; the parents were not aware that their son was gay, nor were they aware of Tom’s relationship with their son. Heartbeats (Les amours imaginaires – 2010) explored a love triangle in which a man and a woman have a relationship with the same man. Laurence Anyways (2012) chronicles a ten year span of a male-to-female transsexual's relationship with her female lover. His eighth film, Matthias and Maxime, released in 2019, features two men who act in a film with a script that requires them to kiss each other, awakening long-dormant feelings for each other; Dolan himself plays the role of Maxime. For this film Dolan served as director, producer, costume designer, writer and editor.

Xavier Dolan, who tops out at 5' 6½", celebrated his thirty-second birthday in March. Trivia: the Quebec-specific French-language dubbed version of the animated series South Park features Dolan as the voice of Stan. Not to mention that he directed the video for Adele's hit single "Hello" in 2015.