Santa Barbara Film Festival Sets Denis Villeneuve Retrospective

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Denis Villeneuve, the French-Canadian filmmaker behind Warner Bros/Legendary’s Dune films, is set for a career retrospective presented by the Santa Barbara Film Festival, to take place at the SBIFF Riviera Theatre from October 18-24.

Films set to screen include Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario, Arrival, Blade Runner 2049, Dune and Dune: Part Two, with Villeneuve to be in attendance for a Q&A on Sunday, October 20.

“Denis has become an unquestionable modern master of cinema, and all of his films demand to be seen on the big screen because they’re visceral spectacles,” said SBIFF’s Executive Director, Roger Durling. “We are so enthusiastic about being able to show the films again together at the state of the art Riviera and to host Denis as well.”

Most recently, Villeneuve has garnered international recognition with a pair o Dune films, based on the seminal sci-fi novel from Frank Herbert, which together grossed over $1.1 billion worldwide. Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are among the new franchise’s stars. 2021’s Dune won six Academy Awards from a total of 10 nominations, and this year’s Dune: Part Two is also expected to be a major awards contender. A threequel, based on Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah, is slated for release on December 18, 2026. As we were first to report, Villeneuve is also currently looking to reteam with Legendary on Nuclear War: A Scenario, a feature adaptation of the work of nonfiction from Pulitzer Prize finalist Annie Jacobsen.

Prior to Dune, Villeneuve garnered substantial acclaim for his alien invasion pic Arrival, starring Amy Adams; action thriller Sicario, starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro, and Josh Brolin; psychological thriller Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal in dual roles; the thriller Prisoners, toplined by Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, Viola Davis and Paul Dano; and the Academy Award-nominated Canadian drama Incendies.

Tickets to the retrospective and its schedule can be found at the link.

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