Cirque du Soleil alumnus and TED2013 speaker Martin Villeneuve (born on March 13th, 1978) is a Montreal-based screenwriter, director and producer. He studied film at Concordia University and graphic design at Université du Québec à Montréal. In 2002, he received an award from the advertising agency Sid Lee for the quality of his portfolio. In the years that followed, he worked as an artistic director with this agency and especially for Cirque du Soleil. In this capacity, he helped create award-winning advertising campaigns for shows like "Zumanity," "KÀ" and "Corteo." He also directed numerous TV commercials for Cirque du Soleil, in addition to music videos and short films. As an author, Martin Villeneuve has written and created the comic book "La voix du tonnerre," as well as the two acclaimed graphic novels "Mars et Avril."
In 2012, he completed his first feature film as writer-director-producer, Mars et Avril (2012), based on his graphic novels and starring Jacques Languirand, Caroline Dhavernas, Paul Ahmarani and Robert Lepage. His striking indie sci-fi received resounding worldwide acclaim: 20 international festivals among the most prestigious (starting with a world premiere in Karlovy Vary), 3 awards, 9 Canadian nominations (including one for Best Adaptation) and positive reviews abroad, including that of io9, Variety and The Gazette (4.5 stars out of 5). In addition, the sheer inventiveness of the film's production won Martin an invitation to give a TED Talk in Long Beach, California, thereby becoming the first TED speaker from Quebec and following in the footsteps of famed directors such as James Cameron and J.J. Abrams who had spoken in the years before.
Martin Villeneuve is set to direct From Beyond, a sci-fi/horror interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft's short story, as well as Imelda, a comedy based on his award-winning short film of the same name. He's also working with comic book masters Benoît Sokal and François Schuiten on an animated fantasy feature film, Aquarica, and on a sci-fi movie with Pressman Film tentatively titled The Other World.
