British Council Logo UK Films Database
Project Detail

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

Synopsis

A young man's calculated reassessment of his infamous, and ultimately disastrous, childhood correspondence with an American television star. A decade after the death of the TV star, the young man, now an actor himself reminisces the written correspondence he shared with the star, as well as the impact those letters had on both their lives.
Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2018 - Special Presentations - World premiere

Details

Year
2018
Type of project
Features
Running time
127 mins
Director
Xavier Dolan
Producer
Lyse Lafontaine, Nancy Grant, Xavier Dolan, Michael Merkt
Co-Producer
Peter Carlton, Barry Ryan
Executive Producer
Joe Iacono, Patrick Roy, Anick Poirier, Nathanaël Karmitz, Elisha Karmitz
Editor
Mathieu Denis, Xavier Dolan
Screenwriter
Xavier Dolan, Jacob Tierney
Director of Photography
André Turpin
Production Designer
Colombe Raby, Anne Pritchard
Sound
Sylvain Brassard
Composer
Gabriel Yared
Principal cast
Jacob Tremblay, Kit Harington, Susan Sarandon, Jessica Chastain, Nathalie Portman, Thandie Newton, Sarah Gadon

Genre

Drama

Categories

Fiction

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Canada, UK coproduction

Lyla Films (CA), Sons of Manual (CA), Warp Films (UK)

Warp Films

33 Riding House Street
London
W1W 7DZ

Sales Company

Seville International

455, St-Antoine West, Suite 300
H2Z 1J1 Montreal
Quebec
Canada

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A young, black, male pharmacist sits on the floor of a dark dispensary holding his knees up to his chest To Run Is To Return

Director: Precious Wura Alabi

Year: 2026

A stoic pharmacist faces a tumultuous 11-hour shift at his demanding job. While he successfully juggles an assorted conveyor-belt of patient’s problems, he struggles in desperate slithers of time to fight off the weight of his own festering issues.

Drama
Film in post production Layby

Director: Jason Bradbury

Year:

Long-distance lorry driver Kieran has built his life around control. He keeps emotional risk at arm's length, seeking anonymous hook ups in laybys where connection is never part of the deal. Until Aidan emerges from the treeline, volatile and unnervingly intense. Kieran, convinced he's in control, ignores every warning sign until the police arrive and the carefully constructed boundaries of his life begin to collapse. LAYBY is a queer psychosexual thriller about collision between control and connection. Set over one night in a remote Scottish layby, it is a story about the need for intimacy and how far we'll go into the dark to find it.

Drama LGBTQIA+ Scottish Thriller
Animated soldier stares to the right of the camera Rogue Trooper

Director: Duncan Jones

Year: 2026

Based on the classic 2000 AD comic series ROGUE TROOPER is an animated science fiction feature which tells the story of 19, a ‘Genetic Infantryman', who finds himself the sole-survivor of an invasion force. Desperate to track down the traitor who sold him and his comrades out, the super soldier is accompanied by three killed-in-action squad mates, whose personalities have been stored in his gun, helmet and backpack. Official Selection Annecy International Animation Festival June 2026 - World Premiere

Action Adventure Sci-Fi War