Denis Villeneuve Is GQ’s Director of the Year

Where some other awards-bestowing committees have been notoriously late in giving great directors their flowers, GQ refuses to waste time. Which is why we’ve honored Denis Villeneuve as our Director of the Year for 2026—yes, for Dune: Part Three, due out December 25th, but also for turning a Hollywood-stymying sci-fi classic into a three-part visual feast that we wish didn’t have to end. So before it does, GQ will be celebrating Villeneuve tonight, in Los Angeles.The French-Canadian is, of course, more than just the director of Dune. He’s an Academy Award winner who can turn tentpole spectacles into critical darlings. As GQ’s Zach Baron writes in his profile of Villeneuve, out next week, “His signature films—2015’s cartel thriller Sicario, or 2016’s science fiction film Arrival, which was nominated for eight Academy Awards—are knotty and severe and not always easy to follow; they are also beautiful and seem to play well anywhere, whether on an airplane, in an HBO rerun, or at an IMAX theater.”He is also, now, about to embark on another massive adventure, though this time in our solar system: Villeneuve will be directing the next James Bond film.To celebrate the man behind the camera, GQ will host a conversation between Villeneuve and Zach Baron, host of One More Question, followed by a special screening of Dune: Part Two to get everyone ready for the third-and-final installment. This all happens tonight at the newly opened, architecturally stunning Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles.Come back next Tuesday to read Baron’s profile of Denis Villeneuve, part of GQ’s Men of the Year issue.