Martin Villeneuve

Artist, Brainstormer, Change Agent, Designer, Entrepreneur, Filmmaker, Idea generator, Parent, Performer, Photographer, Producer, World traveler, Writer/Editor

Cirque du Soleil alumnus and TED speaker Martin Villeneuve is a Montreal-based screenwriter, director, actor and producer. With a strong background in advertising, he has directed numerous commercials for Cirque du Soleil, in addition to music videos, short films and series. His feature film debut, the pioneering sci-fi romance “Mars et Avril,” starring Caroline Dhavernas (“Hannibal”) and internationally renowned stage director Robert Lepage, cost only a stunning $2.3 million CAD to produce. The film received 10 nominations including one for “Best Adapted Screenplay” at the Canadian Screen Awards, and toured in 20 festivals worldwide, starting with a World Premiere in Karlovy Vary. “Mars et Avril” has been described by io9 as “one of the most beautiful, and immersive, sci-fi worlds ever put on film.” Also, it brought Martin to TED where he became the first (and so far, the only) speaker to come out of Quebec, and the third filmmaker to give a TED Talk after James Cameron and J.J. Abrams. His talk has been subtitled in 33 languages and viewed more than a million times. In 2015, he won an award for his performance in his short film “Imelda”, for which he shot two sequels released in 2020. His second feature film, “The 12 Tasks of Imelda” – starring Robert Lepage, Ginette Reno, Michel Barrette, Lynda Beaulieu, Antoine Bertrand, Marc-François Blondin, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Yves Jacques, and himself as Imelda – had its world premiere at the QCFF, and hit theaters across Quebec on October 28th, 2022. His latest endeavor, the animated series “Red Ketchup,” developed for Adult Swim Canada, currently holds the top spot on Télétoon la nuit.

Problems are hidden opportunities and constraints can boost creativity. If you have some crazy ideas in your mind, and that people tell you that it’s impossible to make, well, that’s an even better reason to want to do it, because people have a tendency to see the problems rather than the final result, whereas if you start to deal with problems as being your allies rather than your opponents, life will start to dance with you in the most amazing way. I made an impossible film but I was able to make it because I didn’t know it was impossible. All the difficulties surrounding the making of “Mars et Avril” fueled its creativity and contributed to its success!

Acting, Advertising (Creative), Artistic Director, Branding & business identity, Comic Books, Creating stories and worlds, Creative leadership, Film - Directing, Producing, Writing, Graphic Design, Graphic Novels

I was at the Whistler Film Festival in 2012 promoting “Mars et Avril” when TED curator Chris Anderson approached me. He invited me to give a TED Talk about the film, and I accepted immediately. Two months later, I stood on the TED stage, sharing how constraints fueled the creativity of our film. Being the sole cinema-focused speaker at TED2013, I also became the first from Québec on that stage. The talk brought international attention to “Mars et Avril”; it was a game-changer, giving my work global reach and inspiring others worldwide to tackle their own impossible projects, spanning fields from education to engineering.