Xavier Dolan sweeps Cannes Fortnight

20-year-old Xavier Dolan’s first feature, “I Killed My Mother,” has won three of the top four top prizes in the Cannes Fortnight competition. The semi-autobiographical film was awarded the Art Cinema Award, given by an international jury of independent cinema programmers, and the SACD Prize for best French-language film. Dolan also won the Regards Jeunes 2009 Prize, presented by a jury of young cinephiles to an outstanding first-time director.

Canada.com says Dolan was “completely flabbergasted.”

The Montrealer wrote and directed [and stars in] the coming-of-age movie, which is about a 16-year-old boy just discovering his gay sexuality and fighting with his mother, who constantly annoys him.

The film was one of the most talked about titles of the Directors’ Fortnight – a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival – and its first screening was greeted with a standing ovation.

Not easy to track down a recent photo of Dolan this morning, but he’s acted in several films over the past few years, so I was able to find a still from a film when he was 12, posted after the cut.

Xavier Dolan-Tadros as Michaël in La Forteresse Suspendue