Xavier Dolan (born March 20, 1989) is a Canadian actor, director, screenwriter and producer. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about him!
1.He is sometimes credited as Xavier Dolan-Tadros.
2. Xavier Dolan was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
3. He is the son of Geneviève Dolan, a French-Canadian teacher, and Manuel Tadros, an Egyptian-born Canadian actor and singer with strong ties in the Quebecois entertainment industry.
4. Xavier Dolan attracted international attention with his first feature film, I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère), which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in, using funds from his extensive work as a child actor.
5. The film premiered at the Director’s Fortnight program of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival where it received an eight-minute standing ovation.
6. It won 3 awards— the Art Cinema Award, the SACD Prize for screenplay and the Prix Regards Jeunes.
7. “I killed my mother” also won a Lumière Award, 4 Jutra Awards including Best Film, Best Screenplay and Most Successful Film Outside Québec, beating out Denis Villeneuve’s film Polytechnique (2009) in what was a deemed an “upset” and many other awards.
8. It was subsequently sold to more than 20 countries.
9. However, due to legal problems experienced by the film’s US distributor, Regent Entertainment, it was not released theatrically in the United States until 2013, and once released, it made little money.
10. In 2009, Dolan identified Michael Haneke as one of his favourite directors for his precise camerawork and strong writing, citing Haneke’s Funny Games and The Piano Teacher as favourites.
11. At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Dolan said that The Piano by Jane Campion was a major inspiration for him.
12. Xavier Dolan is gay and described I Killed My Mother as semi-autobiographical.
13. He has cited seeing the film Titanic as an early influence on deciding to enter the film industry.
14. He has stated that” I grew up in a single-parent family with just my mum and I think I am trying to avenge her through cinema”
15. Monia Chokri who plays Xavier’s best friend in the movie (Heartbeats) is actually the person we should thank for the “Bang Bang” song playing throughout the film. In an interview, Xavier mentioned that Monia made him listen to the song because she thought it would suit the film, he agreed that it was an interesting song for the movie and put it in the film.
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