David Cronenberg was born in Canada in 1943. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a bachelor’s degree in English Literature in 1967. During this period, he directed several experimental films, followed by work in television. He wrote and directed his first feature film in 1975, Shivers. From this point, his oeuvre began to take shape, with films such as Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983), The Dead Zone (1983), The Fly (1986), and Crash (1996). More recently, Cosmopolis (2012), Maps to the Stars (2014), and Crimes of the Future (2022) were selected for the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Influenced by authors like Vladimir Nabokov and William S. Burroughs, Cronenberg’s cinema explores the intersections between body, mind, and technology. The combination of horror and science fiction elements, which established him as a pioneer in the body horror genre, gives form to the contradictions and concerns of human society—both physical and psychological—in films imbued with a philosophical dimension and rare emotional intensity. He is a regular presence at LEFFEST: in 2009, an extensive retrospective was dedicated to his oeuvre and, in 2017, he was a member of the Jury of the Official Competition. A Dangerous Method (2011) and Crimes of the Future (2022) were both screened in the Official Selection out of Competition. His most recent film, The Shrouds (2024), will premiere in the Official Selection in Competition at LEFFEST.
