Park City, Utah On Tuesday afternoon Montreal filmmaker Denis Villeneuve was still trying to digest the fact that his fourth film "Incendies" was an Academy Award best foreign film nominee. He had spent the night before fitfully trying to sleep on the couch of his film crew's condominium, and the morning nervously picking at pancakes awaiting the announcement at 6:30 local time. "We didn't even hear the word Canada," the sleep-deprived 43-year-old filmmaker said with a weary grin at a coffee shop later that day. "When they said 'Ca-' we exploded." He shook his head in wonder. "We were running around screaming and crying. I think I had champagne. They handed me a glass but I don't remember anything." Villeneuve was in Park City to present his film at the Sundance Film Festival. It's an intense drama about Quebec siblings who follow their family roots to a violent, chaotic Mideast war zone. He calls the film "my 'Apocalypse Now.'" "It's about the way a child can internalize anger and carry it until they become adults, and our need for reconciliation. There is too much anger around us in this world. And not enough adults." Villeneuve shot the French and Arabic language film in Montreal and Jordan, where he worked with a mostly nonprofessional local cast. "I like working in Quebec. It's safe and secure. But it's also a bubble," he said, sculpting a goldfish bowl in the air with his hands. "It's important to get outside." The fun of being a film director is in working together with cast and crew, he said. "They bring me 10 great ideas and I get to choose one." That spirit of trusting collaboration informed his writing of the film, which is freely adapted from an acclaimed play by Wajdi Mouawad, a Lebanese-born Canadian writer/actor/director. "He told me two things. One, make it your own. Two, you won't be getting any feedback from me," Villeneuve said. He used his artistic license to rework the story, which features intertwined stories of political violence in the present day and a generation ago. "If people love Wajdi's play – it's a masterpiece – they may not approve of my movie. But sometimes you have to be unfaithful to remain true," he said. Winning an Oscar nomination won't make his as yet undecided next film easier, he said. In fact, it increases the pressure. "Now I have to make sure my next film is as good or better quality. That means I'll have to write a strong script or find one." He looks forward to the end of the Oscar season, he said, because it will mark the end of his months-long obligations on the festival and publicity circuit and allow him to get back to the keyboard. "That's the job I love," he said. "Incendies" will be released in the United States in April.
