I Killed My Mother Dolan attracted international attention with his
directorial debut—a film about the complicated relationship between a mother and her teenage son—which he wrote, directed, produced and starred in at the age of 19. He reportedly began writing the script when he was 16 years old. Talking about the genesis of the film, actress
Anne Dorval, who starred as the titular mother and would later work on numerous projects with him, stated Dolan was only 15 when he first came to see her at her dubbing studio. The first script he gave her,
Pink Wings (
Les Ailes Roses) was ultimately never filmed and it was described as "four films in one" by Dorval. As she turned him down, Dolan informed her he wasn't interested in that script anymore, and that he had decided to turn a short story he had written for French class,
The Matricide (
Le Matricide), into what will come to be known as
I Killed My Mother (''J'ai tué ma mère''). He said in an interview with Canadian newspaper that the film was
partly autobiographical. When, years later, he was asked how his mother had received the film, he replied:|214x214px|left The film premiered at the
Director's Fortnight program of the
2009 Cannes Film Festival where it received an eight-minute standing ovation and won three awards: the Art Cinema Award, the SACD Prize for screenplay, and the Prix Regards Jeunes. Dolan later said that the film was "flawed" and
Peter Brunette of
The Hollywood Reporter called it "a somewhat uneven film that demonstrates a great deal of talent". Brunette also called the film "funny and audacious", while Allan Hunter of
Screen International said that it possessed "the sting of shrewdly observed truth". The film received the Claude Jutra Award (now known as the
Canadian Screen Award for Best First Feature) at the
Genies, and the
Toronto Film Critics Association awarded Dolan the inaugural $5,000
Jay Scott Prize for emerging talent.
I Killed My Mother was named one of Canada's Top Ten features of the year by the
Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and chosen as Canada's official entry for
Best Foreign Language Film for the
2010 Academy Awards, though it failed to receive a nomination from
the academy. Distribution rights were later sold to more than 20 countries. Due to legal problems experienced by the film's U.S. distributor,
Regent Entertainment, it was not released theatrically in the U.S. until 2013, and once released, it earned little at the box office.
Heartbeats The second feature film Dolan directed,
Heartbeats (), was financed privately. It won the top prize of the Official Competition at the
Sydney Film Festival in June and screened at several film festivals throughout 2011, but failed to find audiences in non-French-speaking countries. It received several Genie nominations and the AQCC (Québec association of film critics) award for Best Film. The film received praise or qualified praise from critics. A critic for
MTV's
The Out Take, which focuses on
LGBT films, called the film "the best film of the year." Despite the praise, the film was not released commercially for a year. Upon release, the film struggled at the box office,
Tom at the Farm In May 2012, Dolan announced that his fourth film would be an adaptation of
Michel Marc Bouchard's play
Tom at the Farm (
Tom à la ferme). It received its world premiere in the main competition section at the
70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013, and won the FIPRESCI award. Though
Tom at the Farm played the festival circuits in 2013, it was not released in the U.S. until 2015. In an August 2015 interview, Dolan said: "No one knows me in the States, because the movies have been released in such an awkward, irregular fashion, all by different distributors... I don't want to sound pretentious, but it's puzzling."
Mommy Dolan's 2014 film,
Mommy, shared the
Jury Prize in the main competition section at the
2014 Cannes Film Festival with
Jean-Luc Godard's film
Goodbye to Language (). The jury president for the 2014 festival was
Jane Campion and, upon receiving the award, Dolan stated: The film was singled out by critics as Dolan's "most mature" film to date and proved to be a breakthrough in his career as a director. It was his first film to achieve significant success at the box office, grossing over $3.5 million domestically in 2014, becoming the highest-selling film in Quebec for 2014. According to the
Montreal Gazette, over one million people watched it in France.
''It's Only the End of the World'' '' at the
2016 Cannes Film Festival Dolan's next film was an adaptation of the play by , titled ''
It's Only the End of the World''. The film stars , , , and . Filming started in late May 2015. The film was an official selection for the
2016 Cannes Film Festival, in competition for the
Palme d'Or, and it won the festival's
Grand Prix and the
Ecumenical Jury Prize. Dolan stated that ''It's Only the End of the World'' is his best film and the one he's the most proud of. The film premiered to polarized reactions from festival audiences and critics, with
Vanity Fair calling it "the most disappointing film at Cannes."
The Hollywood Reporter called it "a cold and deeply unsatisfying" film and
Variety dubbed it "a frequently excruciating dramatic experience". During the festival, Dolan spoke out against the negative criticism in the media. The film also received positive reviews from critics, including
The Guardian, which called it a "brilliant, stylised and hallucinatory evocation of family dysfunction". ''It's Only the End of the World'' was a box office hit in France, where it debuted at number one and sold over 1 million tickets. For his work on the film, Dolan won the
César Awards for Best Director and
Best Editing at the
42nd ceremony on 24 February 2017. He also won 3
Canadian Screen Awards for
Best Motion Picture,
Best Achievement in Direction and
Best Adapted Screenplay.
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan In March 2013, Dolan was in pre-production for his first English-language film
The Death & Life of John F. Donovan; he co-wrote the screenplay with
Jacob Tierney. The film follows John F. Donovan (
Kit Harington), a Hollywood film actor whose life and career are turned upside-down when a gossip columnist (
Jessica Chastain) exposes his private correspondence with an 11-year-old fan. The film also stars
Susan Sarandon as Donovan's mother and
Kathy Bates as his manager. In February 2018, Dolan confirmed via
Instagram that Chastain had been cut from the film, and that the story had been altered throughout post-production. Speaking to
Telerama, he mentioned the many issues faced during and after filming:The film had its world premiere at the
2018 Toronto International Film Festival, making it Dolan's first film to premiere at the festival. Following its premiere at the festival, it received universally negative reviews from critics.
IndieWire dubbed the film the "worst" of Dolan's career.
The Guardian gave the film one out of five stars, deeming it a "dubious mess".
Now magazine called the film "mediocre at best". In a more positive review,
Screen International wrote that the film "may revisit a lot of familiar territory for Dolan but on this form it is good to welcome him home."
Dolan's eighth feature film, titled
Matthias & Maxime, centers on the titular Matthias (played by Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) and Maxime (played by Dolan himself), lifelong friends whose relationship is tested when they act in a short film whose script calls for them to kiss, leaving them both questioning their sexual identities when the experience awakens their long-dormant feelings for each other. The film had its world premiere in the main competition section at the
2019 Cannes Film Festival on 22 May. It received mixed to generally positive reviews, with
The Hollywood Reporter calling it a movie "miming an emotion that's never actually felt" while
Variety noted that "it feels at once younger and older, sweeter and more seasoned, than Dolan's last few films". The film was nominated for seven awards at the
22nd Quebec Cinema Awards, including
Best Supporting Actor for Funk and Best Editing for Dolan. It won for
Best Supporting Actress for Bernard, Best Music for Jean-Michel Blais, and Most Successful Film Outside Quebec. It was also included in the
Toronto International Film Festival's list of Canada's top 10 films of 2019.
Retirement plans In November 2022, Dolan indicated to
Le Journal de Montréal his desire to take a break from the film industry. In July 2023, in two separate interviews with the Spanish newspapers
El Paísand
El Mundo, when asked about this break, Dolan explained that he intended to retire from cinema. He said: "I no longer have the desire or strength to commit myself to a project for two years that barely anyone sees. I put too much passion into it to have so many disappointments. It makes me wonder if my filmmaking is bad, and I know it's not." He also discussed his fears of a "civil war caused by intolerance" and went on to say, "I don't understand what is the point of telling stories when everything around us is falling apart. Art is useless and dedicating oneself to cinema, a waste of time." He concluded, "I want to take time to be with my friends and family. I want to shoot commercials and build myself a house in the country one day when I have enough money saved. I don't say that in a sad way at all. I just want to live something else, other experiences." In a subsequent
Instagram post on his personal page, following speculations and criticism, he clarified some of these statements offering a partial transcript of the conversation, writing:
Other work Dolan co-owns the production company Sons of Manual along with producer
Nancy Grant. In 2015, Dolan was selected to serve on the jury for the main competition section of the
2015 Cannes Film Festival. Also that year, he directed the music video for "
Hello", the lead single from the album
25 by
Adele. The video broke the
Vevo record for most views in 24 hours, over 27.7 million views. It was also notable for featuring footage shot in
IMAX. Dolan received the
Juno Award for
Video of the Year for directing the video. Dolan played supporting roles in two 2018 American films:
Boy Erased, opposite
Lucas Hedges and
Troye Sivan, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival; and
Bad Times at the El Royale, as British-accented music producer Buddy Sunday. He appeared in the horror follow-up
It Chapter Two in 2019, after publicly praising its first installation. When asked how he got the part, he said he had met director Muschietti and told him he'd play any role to be in the sequel, "the door knob, the curtain". He has also starred in
Lost Illusions, an adaption of by , directed by
Xavier Giannoli. For this role, he obtained a nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the
2022 César Awards. In December 2021, Dolan confirmed via
Instagram the end of the shooting of his first TV Drama,
The Night Logan Woke Up, based on
Michel Marc Bouchard's play of the same name. In 2025, Dolan starred in the French drama
The Great Arch, directed by
Stéphane Demoustier, for which he was nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actor. == Influences and style ==