From a talking fish in Montreal to the sands of Arrakis. Every feature Denis Villeneuve has directed, ranked from the bottom up.

01

Maelstrom2000Director, Screenwriter

A young businesswoman spirals after a hit-and-run. Narrated by a talking fish facing the chopping block. Villeneuve's formal wit was already fully formed. What was missing was the structural discipline that would define everything after.

02

Polytechnique2009Director

A dramatization of the 1989 Montreal Massacre, shot in black and white. Austere and devastatingly controlled. It won nine Genie Awards and screened at Cannes, but its subject matter keeps it outside the accessible canon.

03

Enemy2013Director

Jake Gyllenhaal plays a man who discovers his exact physical double. An amber-saturated Toronto becomes a city of dread. A cult object. The final image remains the most discussed frame of his career outside the Dune films.

04

Prisoners2013Director

Roger Deakins' first collaboration with Villeneuve, and the film that announced him to Hollywood. Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal in a thriller about two missing girls. Deakins received an Oscar nomination. Villeneuve's least Villeneuve film, in the best possible sense.

05

Incendies2010Director, Screenwriter

Canada's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. Two twins travel to an unnamed country to execute the final wishes of their mother. What they find restructures everything that came before it. A film that earns its devastation.

06

Blade Runner 20492017Director

Roger Deakins won his first Oscar here, after 14 prior nominations. A sequel that outpaced its source in ambition. The ruined Las Vegas sequence is among the most beautiful passages Villeneuve has committed to film.

07

Dune: Part Two2024Director, Co-Screenwriter

Paul Atreides becomes the thing he was warned against. Greig Fraser and Villeneuve deliver some of the most formally daring images in blockbuster history. Ninety-two percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Roughly $715 million worldwide. His commercial peak and possibly his most emotionally withholding film.

08

Dune2021Director, Co-Screenwriter

Ten Oscar nominations, six wins: Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound, and Visual Effects. A franchise entry that refuses to behave like one. The first ornithopter sequence over the desert remains one of the great openings of his career.

09

Sicario2015Director

An FBI agent sent into a world she does not understand, photographed by Roger Deakins, scored by Johann Johannsson, written by Taylor Sheridan. Three Oscar nominations. One of the most precisely assembled films of the decade. Villeneuve at his most efficient.

10

Arrival2016Director

Eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Adapted from Ted Chiang's short story Story of Your Life. Bradford Young's cinematography earned a historic nomination. A linguist. Twelve alien vessels. A language that changes the experience of time. His best film.