The blockbuster auteur, who is set to receive the Visionary Award at our 2024 event, tells IndieWire why he sees science fiction as a vessel for hope.

If there’s one thing that director Denis Villeneuve has proven, it’s that he is capable of pulling off large-scale sci-fi films better than almost any other working filmmaker. He first demonstrated that when he dipped his toes into the sci-fi genre with 2016’s Arrival and did so again a year later when he helmed Blade Runner 2049.

Honestly, most of us are just grown children, even Award-winning directors. On a recent episode of The Town podcast, Dune: Part Two director Denis Villeneuve allows his intrusive thoughts to win when he explains how his childhood disappointment in Return of the Jedi is still preventing him from ever directing a Star Wars movie,

Denis Villeneuve is known for directing some of the best and most critically acclaimed sci-fi movies of the last two decades, but has no interest in making a Star Wars movie. The director believes that the franchise “derailed” after 1983.

Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve explains his thought process behind why he'd never direct a Star Wars project.

Yes, the "Dune" director hated Ewoks that much. "It became like a recipe, and there were no more surprises," he says.

Filmmaker Denis Villeneuve was born in 1967; his filmography also includes plenty of forays into the futuristic and extraterrestrial. (Plus whatever you’d like to classify Enemy as.) Knowing his age and penchant for ambitious science fiction,