Xavier Dolan

Xavier Dolan-Tadros (; born 20 March 1989) is a Canadian filmmaker and actor. He began his career as a child actor in commercials before directing several arthouse feature films. He first received international acclaim in 2009 for his feature film directorial debut, I Killed My Mother , which he also starred in, wrote, and produced, and which premiered at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight section and won three awards from the program.

Since 2009, he has written and directed eight feature films, all of which have premiered at Cannes, with the exception of Tom at the Farm—which premiered at the 70th Venice International Film Festival in 2013—and his first English-language film, The Death & Life of John F. Donovan, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Dolan has also directed music videos, notably with Adele for her singles "Hello" (2015), and "Easy on Me" (2021), for which he received a Grammy Award for Best Music Video nomination.

Dolan has won many accolades for his work, including the Jury Prize at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival for Mommy and the Grand Prix at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival for It's Only the End of the World. He has also won several Canadian Screen Awards and César Awards.

Outside of his own films, he has also starred in films from other directors, such as Elephant Song (2014), Boy Erased (2018), Bad Times at the El Royale (2018), It Chapter Two (2019), and Lost Illusions (2021). He has received two nominations for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor; for Lost Illusions in 2022 and The Great Arch (2025) in 2026.

Early life Dolan was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec. He is the son of Geneviève Dolan, a Québécois public college administrator with Irish roots, His parents divorced when he was 2 years old, leaving his mother to take care of him in suburban Montreal. He has an older half-brother from his father's previous relationship.

He began acting at the age of 4, after his aunt, a production manager, suggested he auditioned for a minor role in a TV drama. Most notably he starred in a series of 21 commercials for a Canadian drugstore chain, Jean Coutu. He kept working until he was 8, when his mother, unable to cope with such a hyperactive child, sent him to boarding school in rural Quebec for 5 years. Once he completed his high school education, he decided to enroll at the College de Maisonneuve studying literature, but he will only last two months, later describing the experience as "suffocating".

Remembering his early days as an actor preceding his filmmaking debut, Dolan said:

Career

I Killed My Mother

Dolan attracted international attention with his directorial debut—a film about the complicated relationship between a mother and her teenage son—which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in at the age of 19.

He reportedly began writing the script when he was 16 years old. Talking about the genesis of the film, actress Anne Dorval, who starred as the titular mother and would later work on numerous projects with him, stated Dolan was only 15 when he first came to see her at her dubbing studio. The first script he gave her, Pink Wings (Les Ailes Roses) was ultimately never filmed and it was described as "four films in one" by Dorval. As she turned him down, Dolan informed her he wasn't interested in that script anymore, and that he had decided to turn a short story he had written for French class, The Matricide (Le Matricide), into what would come to be known as I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère).

He said in an interview with Canadian newspaper that the film was partly autobiographical. When, years later, he was asked how his mother had received the film, he replied:I think it was easier for my mom to think it was just about somebody else. She said the only thing that woman and her had in common was that they were both stuck in traffic on a bridge every morning. Years later, we talked about it and she said, "When I saw the film, the first thing I said to myself was, I didn't know he hated me that much." But making that film, for me, was such an effort of modesty in terms of accepting what a brash, hysterical, egotistical kid I could have been and embracing the fact that I needed to be honest so the movie wouldn't be one-dimensional. Making that movie was all about making that woman a hero and the moments mocking her are so largely outnumbered by the moments glorifying her, while demonizing him–me. So for me, it was all about saying, "Didn't you know I loved you that much?".

Dolan later said that the film was "flawed" and Peter Brunette of The Hollywood Reporter called it "a somewhat uneven film that demonstrates a great deal of talent". Brunette also called the film "funny and audacious", while Allan Hunter of Screen International said that it possessed "the sting of shrewdly observed truth".

The film received the Claude Jutra Award (now known as the Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature) at the Genies, and the Toronto Film Critics Association awarded Dolan the inaugural $5,000 Jay Scott Prize for emerging talent. I Killed My Mother was named one of Canada's Top Ten features of the year by the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and chosen as Canada's official entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2010 Academy Awards, though it failed to receive a nomination from the academy. Distribution rights were later sold to more than 20 countries. Due to legal problems experienced by the film's U.S. distributor, Regent Entertainment, it was not released theatrically in the U.S. until 2013, and once released, it earned little at the box office.

Heartbeats

The second feature film Dolan directed, Heartbeats , was financed privately. It won the top prize of the Official Competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June and screened at several film festivals throughout 2011, but failed to find audiences in non-French-speaking countries. It received several Genie nominations and the AQCC (Québec association of film critics) award for Best Film. The film received praise or qualified praise from critics. A critic for MTV's The Out Take, which focuses on LGBT films, called the film "the best film of the year." Despite the praise, the film was not released commercially for a year. Upon release, the film struggled at the box office,

Tom at the Farm

In May 2012, Dolan announced that his fourth film would be an adaptation of Michel Marc Bouchard's play Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme). It received its world premiere in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013, and won the FIPRESCI award. Though Tom at the Farm played the festival circuits in 2013, it was not released in the U.S. until 2015. In an August 2015 interview, Dolan said: "No one knows me in the States, because the movies have been released in such an awkward, irregular fashion, all by different distributors... I don't want to sound pretentious, but it's puzzling."

Mommy

Dolan's 2014 film, Mommy, shared the Jury Prize in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival with Jean-Luc Godard's film Goodbye to Language . The jury president for the 2014 festival was Jane Campion and, upon receiving the award, Dolan stated: The film was singled out by critics as Dolan's "most mature" film to date and proved to be a breakthrough in his career as a director. It was his first film to achieve significant success at the box office, grossing over $3.5 million domestically in 2014, becoming the highest-selling film in Quebec for 2014. According to the Montreal Gazette, over one million people watched it in France.

It's Only the End of the World

Dolan's next film was an adaptation of the play by , titled It's Only the End of the World. The film stars , , , and . Filming started in late May 2015. The film was an official selection for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, in competition for the Palme d'Or, and it won the festival's Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Prize.

Dolan stated that It's Only the End of the World is his best film and the one he's the most proud of. The film premiered to polarized reactions from festival audiences and critics, with Vanity Fair calling it "the most disappointing film at Cannes." The Hollywood Reporter called it "a cold and deeply unsatisfying" film and Variety dubbed it "a frequently excruciating dramatic experience". During the festival, Dolan spoke out against the negative criticism in the media. The film also received positive reviews from critics, including The Guardian, which called it a "brilliant, stylised and hallucinatory evocation of family dysfunction".

It's Only the End of the World was a box office hit in France, where it debuted at number one and sold over 1 million tickets. For his work on the film, Dolan won the César Awards for Best Director and Best Editing at the 42nd ceremony on 24 February 2017. He also won 3 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Achievement in Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

In March 2013, Dolan was in pre-production for his first English-language film The Death & Life of John F. Donovan; he co-wrote the screenplay with Jacob Tierney. The film follows John F. Donovan (Kit Harington), a Hollywood film actor whose life and career are turned upside-down when a gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain) exposes his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan. The film also stars Susan Sarandon as Donovan's mother and Kathy Bates as his manager. In February 2018, Dolan confirmed via Instagram that Chastain had been cut from the film, and that the story had been altered throughout post-production. Speaking to Telerama, he mentioned the many issues faced during and after filming:The film had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, making it Dolan's first film to premiere at the festival. Following its premiere at the festival, it received universally negative reviews from critics. IndieWire dubbed the film the "worst" of Dolan's career. The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars, deeming it a "dubious mess". Now magazine called the film "mediocre at best". In a more positive review, Screen International wrote that the film "may revisit a lot of familiar territory for Dolan but on this form it is good to welcome him home."

Dolan's eighth feature film, titled Matthias & Maxime, centers on the titular Matthias (played by Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) and Maxime (played by Dolan himself), lifelong friends whose relationship is tested when they act in a short film whose script calls for them to kiss, leaving them both questioning their sexual identities when the experience awakens their long-dormant feelings for each other.

The film had its world premiere in the main competition section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on 22 May. It received mixed to generally positive reviews, with The Hollywood Reporter calling it a movie "miming an emotion that's never actually felt" while Variety noted that "it feels at once younger and older, sweeter and more seasoned, than Dolan's last few films". The film was nominated for seven awards at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Funk and Best Editing for Dolan. It won for Best Supporting Actress for Bernard, Best Music for Jean-Michel Blais, and Most Successful Film Outside Quebec. It was also included in the Toronto International Film Festival's list of Canada's top 10 films of 2019.

Retirement plans In November 2022, Dolan indicated to Le Journal de Montréal his desire to take a break from the film industry.

In July 2023, in two separate interviews with the Spanish newspapers El País and El Mundo , when asked about this break, Dolan explained that he intended to retire from cinema. He said: "I no longer have the desire or strength to commit myself to a project for two years that barely anyone sees. I put too much passion into it to have so many disappointments. It makes me wonder if my filmmaking is bad, and I know it's not." He also discussed his fears of a "civil war caused by intolerance" and went on to say, "I don't understand what is the point of telling stories when everything around us is falling apart. Art is useless and dedicating oneself to cinema, a waste of time." He concluded, "I want to take time to be with my friends and family. I want to shoot commercials and build myself a house in the country one day when I have enough money saved. I don't say that in a sad way at all. I just want to live something else, other experiences."

In a subsequent Instagram post on his personal page, following speculations and criticism, he clarified some of these statements offering a partial transcript of the conversation, writing:

Other work Dolan co-owns the production company Sons of Manual along with producer Nancy Grant.

In 2015, Dolan was selected to serve on the jury for the main competition section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Also that year, he directed the music video for "Hello", the lead single from the album 25 by Adele. The video broke the Vevo record for most views in 24 hours, over 27.7 million views. It was also notable for featuring footage shot in IMAX. Dolan received the Juno Award for Video of the Year for directing the video.

Dolan played supporting roles in two 2018 American films: Boy Erased, opposite Lucas Hedges and Troye Sivan, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival; and Bad Times at the El Royale, as British-accented music producer Buddy Sunday. He appeared in the horror follow-up It Chapter Two in 2019, after publicly praising its first installation. When asked how he got the part, he said he had met director Muschietti and told him he'd play any role to be in the sequel, "the door knob, the curtain".

He has also starred in Lost Illusions, an adaption of by , directed by Xavier Giannoli. For this role, he obtained a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 2022 César Awards.

In December 2021, Dolan confirmed via Instagram the end of the shooting of his first TV Drama, The Night Logan Woke Up, based on Michel Marc Bouchard's play of the same name.

In 2025, Dolan starred in the French drama The Great Arch, directed by Stéphane Demoustier, for which he was nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Influences and style

Dolan has said that he is not particularly influenced by any specific directors, though in 2009, he 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.

At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, he said that Jane Campion's The Piano was a major inspiration for him. He has also cited seeing the film Titanic as an early influence on his decision to enter the film industry. He has mentioned paying tribute to My Own Private Idaho with a sequence in I Killed My Mother, and that he was influenced by the frog rain scene at the end of Magnolia, but said in 2013,His list of favorite films was published in September 2023 on LaCinetek. It includes several works from the 2000s, such as Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River by Clint Eastwood, There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson, Catch Me If You Can by Steven Spielberg and The Departed by Martin Scorsese.

Personal life Dolan is gay and described his first film I Killed My Mother as semi-autobiographical. In a 2018 interview with The New York Times, Dolan said that due to an adolescence "consumed by work", he made his first friends in his late 20s, and added that he has not been in a long-term relationship with another man because he "tends to be attracted to unattainable heterosexual men", citing then Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as an example.

In May 2025, in the context of the Gaza war, Dolan signed an open letter, along other film acting figures, condemning the "silence" over the impact of Israeli military actions in Gaza and, in September, he joined other Québécois celebrities in demanding a boycott of the Israeli film industry.

Filmography Film As filmmaker

Acting roles Title Year Role Director(s) Notes Heads or Tails (J'en suis !) 1997 Edouard Le marchand de sable 1999 Short film The Hidden Fortress (La Forteresse suspendue) 2001 Michaël Mirrors (Miroirs d'été) 2006 Julien Short film Martyrs 2008 Suzie 2009 Punk I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) 2009 Himself Also producer and writer Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires) 2010 Francis Himself Also producer, writer and editor Good Neighbours 2010 Jean-Marc Lipsett Diaries 2010 Narrator Short documentary film Laurence Anyways 2012 Man at the party Himself Also executive producer, writer and editor Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme) 2013 Tom Himself Also producer and writer Miraculum 2014 Étienne Elephant Song 2014 Boy Erased 2018 Jon Also does own dub-over voice in the European and Canadian French dubbed versions Bad Times at the El Royale 2018 Buddy Sunday Also does own dub-over voice in the European and Canadian French dubbed versions Matthias & Maxime 2019 Max Himself It Chapter Two 2019 Also does own dub-over voice in the European and Canadian French dubbed versions Lost Illusions 2021 Raoul Nathan Xavier Giannoli The Beast 2023 Artificial intelligence system (voice) Bertrand Bonello Also co-producer The Great Arch (L'Inconnu du Grande Arche) 2025 Jean-Louis Subilon Stéphane Demoustier +Key Denotes films that have not yet been released

As voice actor Dolan is also a voice actor and has dubbed several films in Quebec French. Note: Many films that are dubbed in French are also dubbed in the French spoken in Québec or in one of the versions of French known as international French. DVDs may be labelled VQ for "version Québécoise", which uses a Québécois accent and terms unique to that variety of the French language, or VFQ for "version francophone québécoise", which presents a generally neutral accent but pronounces English words in a way found in North America rather than in France. Josh Hutcherson 2009: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant – Steve "Leopard" Leonard 2010: The Kids Are All Right – Laser Allgood 2012: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – Sean Anderson 2012: The Hunger Games – Peeta Mellark 2012: Red Dawn – Robert Kitner 2013: Epic – Nod 2013: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire – Peeta Mellark 2014: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 – Peeta Mellark 2015: The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 – Peeta Mellark 2017: The Disaster Artist – Philip Haldiman 2018: Elliot the Littlest Reindeer – Elliot 2023: Five Nights at Freddy's - Mike Schmidt 2025: Five Nights at Freddy's 2 - Mike Schmidt Taylor Lautner 2005: The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D – Sharkboy 2008: Twilight – Jacob Black 2009: The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Jacob Black 2010: Valentine's Day – Willy 2010: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse – Jacob Black 2011: Abduction – Nathan Harper 2011: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1 – Jacob Black 2012: The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2 – Jacob Black 2013: Grown Ups 2 – Andy 2015: Tracers – Cam Rupert Grint 2001: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone – Ron Weasley 2002: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – Ron Weasley 2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – Ron Weasley 2005: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – Ron Weasley 2007: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – Ron Weasley 2009: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – Ron Weasley 2010: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 – Ron Weasley 2011: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – Ron Weasley 2023: Knock at the Cabin – Redmond Aaron Taylor-Johnson 2010: Kick-Ass – Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass 2012: Savages – Ben Leonard 2012: Anna Karenina – Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky 2013: Kick-Ass 2 – Dave Lizewski / Kick-Ass 2014: Godzilla – U.S. Navy EOD LT Ford Brody 2020: Tenet – Ives 2022: Bullet Train – Tangerine Dylan O'Brien 2014: The Maze Runner – Thomas 2015: Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials – Thomas 2016: Deepwater Horizon – Caleb Holloway 2017: American Assassin – Mitch Rapp 2018: Maze Runner: The Death Cure – Thomas 2020: Flashback – Fredrick Fitzell 2022: The Outfit – Richie Boyle Nicholas Hoult 2005: The Weather Man – Mike 2013: Jack the Giant Slayer – Jack 2015: Mad Max: Fury Road – Nux 2015: Equals – Silas 2016: Collide – Casey Stein 2019: Dark Phoenix – Hank McCoy / Beast Eddie Redmayne 2011: My Week with Marilyn – Colin Clark 2014: The Theory of Everything – Stephen Hawking 2015: The Danish Girl – Einar Wegener / Lili Elbe (Lili Elvenes) 2016: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them – Newt Scamander 2018: Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald – Newt Scamander 2022: Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore – Newt Scamander Daryl Sabara 2001: Spy Kids – Juni Cortez 2002: Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams – Juni Cortez 2003: Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over – Juni Cortez 2007: Halloween – Wesley Rhoades 2011: Spy Kids: All the Time in the World – Juni Cortez 2012: John Carter – Ned Nat Wolff 2013: Admission – Jeremiah Balakian 2014: The Fault in Our Stars – Isaac 2015: Paper Towns – Quentin "Q" Jacobsen 2015: The Intern – Justin 2017: Home Again – Teddy Dorsey Haley Joel Osment 2000: Pay It Forward – Trevor 2002: The Hunchback of Notre Dame II – Zephyr 2002: The Country Bears – Beary Barrington 2003: The Jungle Book 2 – Mowgli 2003: Secondhand Lions – Walter

Live-action 2000: My Dog Skip – Spit 2005: Saw II – Daniel Matthews 2006: Alpha Dog – Keith Stratten 2007: Whistler – Quinn McKaye 2008: High School Musical 3: Senior Year – Donnie Dion 2012: Life of Pi – Pi Patel 2012: Chernobyl Diaries – Chris 2014: Maleficent – Prince Philip 2014: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – Harry Osborn 2016: Everybody Wants Some!! – Jake 2019: Spider-Man: Far From Home – Brad Davis 2019: The Death & Life of John F. Donovan – John F. Donovan 2021: Dune – Paul Atreides 2023: Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – Noah Díaz 2024: Dune: Part Two – Paul Atreides 2026: Masters of the Universe - Adam Glenn / He-Man Animation 2003: Finding Nemo – Tad 2006: Grossology – Ty 2007: Magi-Nation – Tony 2009: South Park – Stan Marsh 2009: Planet 51 – Skiff 2010: How to Train Your Dragon – Hiccup 2011: The Smurfs – Brainy Smurf 2015: Inside Out – Fear 2017: The Emoji Movie – Gene 2018: Anatane: Saving the Children of Okura – Anatane 2022: Lightyear - Buzz Lightyear 2023: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – The Spot/Dr. Jonathan Ohnn 2024: Inside Out 2 - Fear

As a music video director Year Title Artist Director Producer Editor 2013 "College Boy" Indochine 2015 "Hello" Adele 2021 "Easy on Me"

Frequent collaborators Actors I Killed My MotherHeartbeatsLaurence AnywaysTom at the FarmMommyIt's Only the End of the WorldThe Death & Life of John F. DonovanMatthias & MaximeThe Night Logan Woke Up Anne Dorval Suzanne Clément Antoine Olivier Pilon Manuel Tadros Patricia Tulasne Jacques LavalléeEmily Hampshire Pierre-Yves Cardinal Nathalie Baye Monia Chokri Magalie Lépine-BlondeauÉric Bruneau Niels Schneider Monique Spaziani Perrette Souplex Pierre Chagnon

Accolades

Books on Xavier Dolan Fiaba Di Martino, Laura Delle Vedove, Xavier Dolan. Il sentimento dell'invisibile, Italy, Sovera Edizioni, 2016, 112 p. Patrick Delisle-Crevier, Raconte-moi Xavier Dolan, France, Éditions Petit Homme, 2017, 152 p.

Laurent Beurdeley, Xavier Dolan: l'indomptable, Canada, Éditions du CRAM, 2019, 455 p. Andrée Lafontaine, ReFocus: The Films of Xavier Dolan (ReFocus: The International Directors Series), Edinburgh University Press, 2021, 256 p. Flaminia Fiocco, À l'impossible je suis tenu. Per una disamina trasversale della figura e della cinematografia di Xavier Dolan, Italy, Edizioni Pendragon, 2021, 280 p.