Martin Villeneuve

Martin Villeneuve is a Canadian screenwriter, producer, director, actor, and art director. He was nominated at the Canadian Screen Award (formerly Genie Award) in 2013 for Best Adapted Screenplay, for Mars et Avril, his feature film debut. He is also known for The 12 Tasks of Imelda, his second feature film released in 2022, in which he portrays his own grandmother, and for his animated series Red Ketchup premiering in 2023. Villeneuve previously worked for Cirque du Soleil as an artistic director for commercials and films. Early life He studied film production at Concordia University and graphic design at Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2002, he received an award from the commercial creativity agency Sid Lee for the quality of his portfolio. In the years that followed, he worked as an artistic director with this agency and created advertising campaigns for several Cirque du Soleil shows, including Zumanity, KÀ and Corteo. He found the name for these three shows, as well as for Guy Laliberté’s One Drop Foundation. When the agency (formerly known as Diesel) changed its name in 2006, Villeneuve had the idea for the anagram Sid Lee. He also directed TV commercials for Cirque du Soleil, in addition to music videos and documentary shorts. Career Villeneuve began his career as a writer and graphic artist in 2002. He has created the comic book La voix du tonnerre (Les 400 coups, 2004), as well as the two graphic novels Mars et Avril (Sid Lee & la Pastèque, 2002-2006). In 2012, the feature film adaptation of Mars et Avril which Villeneuve wrote, directed and produced, was brought to the silver screen and released in Canada in Fall 2012. Mars et Avril toured in 20 international festivals, starting with a world premiere at the 47th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Czech Republic, and received 10 nominations. Martin Villeneuve was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2013 Canadian Screen Awards, and he also won an Imaging the Future Award at the Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival in Switzerland. On February 27, 2013, Villeneuve gave a TED Talk about Mars et Avril, thereby becoming the first (and so far, the only) speaker from Quebec invited to this event that took place in Long Beach, California. Prior to his talk, the opening sequence of the movie was shown, as well as a three minutes overview of the steps leading from the green screen to the final images.