Biography
French-Canadian actor-director Xavier Dolan gained international acclaim for exploring intensely complicated relationships between friends and family in films such as "J'ai tué ma mere" ("I Killed My Mother") (2009) and the drama "Les amours imaginaires" ("Heartbeats") (2010). The son of actor Manuel Tadros, Dolan was born on March 20, 1989 in Québec, Canada. He began his career acting in comedies such as "J'en suis!" (1989) and "La forteresse suspendue" (2001). In the late 2000s, Dolan starred in the coming-of-age short film "Mirrors" (2007) before he made a splash in the international film world with the 2009 semi-autobiographical drama "J'ai tué ma mere" ("I Killed My Mother"), a film in which he starred, wrote and directed. An exposé about the love-hate relationship between a young man discovering his homosexuality and his mother (Anne Dorval), Dolan's directorial debut swept three prizes at Cannes' 2009 Directors' Fortnight. In 2010, Dolan's romantic drama "Les amours imaginaires" ("Heartbeats") further cemented his place as one of Canada's promising young directors. In "Les amours imaginaires," Dolan's Francis was infatuated with Nicolas (Niels Schneider), an evasive literature student who was also the object of affection of Francis' best friend Marie (Monia Chokri). The friendship between Francis and Marie becomes increasingly competitive as they continued to woo Nicolas. In 2012, Dolan directed the drama "Laurence Anyways," about a seemingly impossible love story between a man and a woman after the man has a sex change.
