Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend makes its world premiere September 19 as the closing-night film of the Toronto International Film Festival. The Canadian drama follows Gilles Villeneuve before Formula One, when he was a young driver from Quebec trying to enter a sport built for people with much more money.
Rémi Goulet plays Villeneuve. The 102-minute film is directed by Yan Lanouette Turgeon and written by Daniel Roby and Guillaume Lonergan. It is presented in French and English.
Before the Ferrari legend
The story begins in Berthierville, Quebec, in 1970. Gilles loves cars, speed and mechanical work, but talent does not pay for a race team. He must decide how much of his family’s future he is willing to risk for the chance to compete.
The film focuses on the years when Villeneuve was still proving that he belonged. He races snowmobiles, studies every machine he can reach and pushes into a professional world where wealthy drivers have an obvious advantage.
That beginning gives the movie more than a list of famous wins. The trailer shows Gilles in cramped garages, at family tables and behind the wheel of machines that look one mistake away from falling apart. Racing is exciting, but the cost follows him home.
Rosalie Bonenfant plays Joann Villeneuve, the wife who shares the pressure created by Gilles’ dream. The cast also includes Patrice Robitaille, Anick Lemay, Fabien Cloutier, Hubert Proulx, Étienne Galloy and Luc Picard.
A homegrown racing story gets TIFF’s final spotlight
TIFF chose the film for its closing-night gala, giving a Quebec story one of the festival’s biggest stages. The September 19 presentation is also the movie’s world premiere.
The choice fits the scale of Villeneuve’s life. He became one of Canada’s best-known athletes, but the movie returns to the period before the red Ferrari and international fame. Its central question is simple: how far can raw talent carry someone who starts with almost nothing?
Christian Larouche produced the film through Christal Films. Les Films Opale and Entract Films are handling distribution. The production uses period cars, racing suits and winter tracks to rebuild the world that shaped Villeneuve’s early career.
When the movie reaches theaters
Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend opens in Quebec theaters on November 11, 2026. A wider international release has not been announced.
The TIFF premiere gives the film its first audience nearly two months before that date. For viewers who only know Villeneuve as a Formula One icon, the drama is designed as the beginning of the story: a mechanic, a young family and a driver willing to bet everything on one more race.
