Denis Côté

Directing

Denis Côté

Born 1973-11-16 · Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, Canada

Denis Côté is an independent filmmaker and producer living in Quebec, of Brayon origin. His experimental films have been shown at major film festivals around the world. An uncompromising and prolific maverick who challenges audiences rather than offering them crystal clear, classically structured narratives, Côté has won acclaim and awards in Canada and internationally for his independent features and documentaries. Côté’s films are starkly minimalist, strangely poetic, dryly funny and thematically enigmatic. His deadpan style and marginalized characters have earned him an international reputation as one of Canada’s leading auteurs.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Social Hygiene poster
5.9

Hedonistic philosopher-cum-delinquent, Antonin always finds the right word to win himself both the compliments and the rebukes of his fellows. Antonin never misses a chance to exploit both the goodness and the patience of his wife, Églantine. He is also a constant source of disappointment to his sister, Solveig. Busy trying to avoid Rose the tax collector who is after his neck, Antonin cannot get his attraction and desire for the beautiful Cassiopée out of his skull. Tormented, Antonin must now devise the right scheme and the right words to apologize to Aurore, one of his victims. Between these five women, Antonin gets stuck.

Social Hygiene

2021

Social Hygiene poster
5.9

Hedonistic philosopher-cum-delinquent, Antonin always finds the right word to win himself both the compliments and the rebukes of his fellows. Antonin never misses a chance to exploit both the goodness and the patience of his wife, Églantine. He is also a constant source of disappointment to his sister, Solveig. Busy trying to avoid Rose the tax collector who is after his neck, Antonin cannot get his attraction and desire for the beautiful Cassiopée out of his skull. Tormented, Antonin must now devise the right scheme and the right words to apologize to Aurore, one of his victims. Between these five women, Antonin gets stuck.

Social Hygiene

2021

Social Hygiene poster
5.9

Hedonistic philosopher-cum-delinquent, Antonin always finds the right word to win himself both the compliments and the rebukes of his fellows. Antonin never misses a chance to exploit both the goodness and the patience of his wife, Églantine. He is also a constant source of disappointment to his sister, Solveig. Busy trying to avoid Rose the tax collector who is after his neck, Antonin cannot get his attraction and desire for the beautiful Cassiopée out of his skull. Tormented, Antonin must now devise the right scheme and the right words to apologize to Aurore, one of his victims. Between these five women, Antonin gets stuck.

Social Hygiene

2021

Excursions poster
NR

In Lisbon, Claudia offers guided tours in and out of the city. At night, she kills time with her sister in a modest apartment. In Lisbon, lonesome Martinho is fluent in Italian and guide tourists all around town. In Lisbon, a band is jamming. They perform improvisational noise jazz. In Lisbon, a mysterious phenomenon fills the air. Claudia and Martinho’s lonely hearts will discreetly meet to the sound of music.

Excursions

2015

Excursions poster
NR

In Lisbon, Claudia offers guided tours in and out of the city. At night, she kills time with her sister in a modest apartment. In Lisbon, lonesome Martinho is fluent in Italian and guide tourists all around town. In Lisbon, a band is jamming. They perform improvisational noise jazz. In Lisbon, a mysterious phenomenon fills the air. Claudia and Martinho’s lonely hearts will discreetly meet to the sound of music.

Excursions

2015

Nobody's Violence poster
NR

Mira is a solitary woman of few words. She travels the roads meeting desperate people with whom she seems to have forged strange death pacts. With no apparent destination, she meets Madeleine and Ludo, two free-spirited hedonists living deep in the forest. Taking a break from her missions and unsettled by a sudden encounter with an excessive and intriguing young man, she uses this stopover to question her wandering life and reassess her dark agreements.

Nobody's Violence

2026

Nobody's Violence poster
NR

Mira is a solitary woman of few words. She travels the roads meeting desperate people with whom she seems to have forged strange death pacts. With no apparent destination, she meets Madeleine and Ludo, two free-spirited hedonists living deep in the forest. Taking a break from her missions and unsettled by a sudden encounter with an excessive and intriguing young man, she uses this stopover to question her wandering life and reassess her dark agreements.

Nobody's Violence

2026

Paul poster
5.7

Struggling with depression and social anxiety, Paul has found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes. By sharing his gently eccentric routines on social media, he combats loneliness and takes it one day at a time.

Paul

2025

Paul poster
5.7

Struggling with depression and social anxiety, Paul has found refuge in serving women who invite him to clean their homes. By sharing his gently eccentric routines on social media, he combats loneliness and takes it one day at a time.

Paul

2025

Ghost Town Anthology poster
6.2

It is a small village somewhere in Quebec with only 215 inhabitants. When young Simon Dubé dies in a car accident, the villagers’ tranquil and regulated existence is thrown out of step. People are decidedly reluctant to talk about the accident. Time seems to lose all meaning. Snowy, frosty winter days stretch out into infinity. Mysterious figures emerge from the fog and commit strange acts. But what seems strange is sometimes more familiar than one might suspect.

Ghost Town Anthology

2019

Ghost Town Anthology poster
6.2

It is a small village somewhere in Quebec with only 215 inhabitants. When young Simon Dubé dies in a car accident, the villagers’ tranquil and regulated existence is thrown out of step. People are decidedly reluctant to talk about the accident. Time seems to lose all meaning. Snowy, frosty winter days stretch out into infinity. Mysterious figures emerge from the fog and commit strange acts. But what seems strange is sometimes more familiar than one might suspect.

Ghost Town Anthology

2019

That Kind of Summer poster
3.7

In a countryside house where they are meant to explore the troubles in their sexuality, three women spend days and nights apprehending their inner demons. A serene German therapist and a kind-hearted social worker supervise them, help them and try to maintain the fragile balance of the group. During 26 days, in the midst of summer, Geisha, Léonie and Eugénie will have to refrain from breaking down, tame the whispers from present times and consider the future.

That Kind of Summer

2022

That Kind of Summer poster
3.7

In a countryside house where they are meant to explore the troubles in their sexuality, three women spend days and nights apprehending their inner demons. A serene German therapist and a kind-hearted social worker supervise them, help them and try to maintain the fragile balance of the group. During 26 days, in the midst of summer, Geisha, Léonie and Eugénie will have to refrain from breaking down, tame the whispers from present times and consider the future.

That Kind of Summer

2022

Our Private Lives poster
3.8

After a lengthy virtual relationship over the Internet, Milena and Philip take the plunge and agree to finally meet. Having lived in Montreal for over a decade, Milena, an immigrant of Bulgarian descent, accepts to greet her correspondent Philip, a flirtatious photographer from Sofia. Out in an isolated cottage in Quebec's countryside, the couple abandon themselves to one another. Between periods of cultural clashes and fleshly pleasures, the two assess each other and the possibilities for true love. But strange, uncanny events soon disrupt Milena and Philip's quiet intimacy as secrecy and silence slowly set in -nihilproductions

Our Private Lives

2007

Our Private Lives poster
3.8

After a lengthy virtual relationship over the Internet, Milena and Philip take the plunge and agree to finally meet. Having lived in Montreal for over a decade, Milena, an immigrant of Bulgarian descent, accepts to greet her correspondent Philip, a flirtatious photographer from Sofia. Out in an isolated cottage in Quebec's countryside, the couple abandon themselves to one another. Between periods of cultural clashes and fleshly pleasures, the two assess each other and the possibilities for true love. But strange, uncanny events soon disrupt Milena and Philip's quiet intimacy as secrecy and silence slowly set in -nihilproductions

Our Private Lives

2007

La sphatte poster
NR

Two red-clad women are pursued by an insistent, yet weary stranger. An existential stroll on the nocturnal pavement of a gloomy Montreal, carried by the sounds of punk rock music.

La sphatte

2003

La sphatte poster
NR

Two red-clad women are pursued by an insistent, yet weary stranger. An existential stroll on the nocturnal pavement of a gloomy Montreal, carried by the sounds of punk rock music.

La sphatte

2003

Maïté poster
NR

Without dialogues, Maϊté shows us an adolescent who goes to a big city to a black metal concert.

Maïté

2007

Bestiary poster
6.9

A popular sensation in medieval Europe, bestiaries were catalogs of beasts featuring exotic animal illustrations, zoological wisdom, and ancient legends. The documentary unfolds like a filmic picture book where both humans and animals are on display. As we observe them, they also observe us and one another, invoking the Hindu idea of “darshan”: a mutual beholding that initiates a shift in consciousness.

Bestiary

2012

Bestiary poster
6.9

A popular sensation in medieval Europe, bestiaries were catalogs of beasts featuring exotic animal illustrations, zoological wisdom, and ancient legends. The documentary unfolds like a filmic picture book where both humans and animals are on display. As we observe them, they also observe us and one another, invoking the Hindu idea of “darshan”: a mutual beholding that initiates a shift in consciousness.

Bestiary

2012

Drifting States poster
6.0

Christian has commited a crime, a crime of compassion. A troubled soul, he must now flee not only the law, but the deep ethical consequences of his act. The path he sets upon leads him to where all roads end : a small community by the name of Radisson, 1500km north of Montreal. Slowly, he starts his life anew among his new neighbours, a new job, a new interest in life. His story drifts along, somewhere between fiction and reality…

Drifting States

2005

Drifting States poster
6.0

Christian has commited a crime, a crime of compassion. A troubled soul, he must now flee not only the law, but the deep ethical consequences of his act. The path he sets upon leads him to where all roads end : a small community by the name of Radisson, 1500km north of Montreal. Slowly, he starts his life anew among his new neighbours, a new job, a new interest in life. His story drifts along, somewhere between fiction and reality…

Drifting States

2005

Seconde valse poster
NR

Éric St-Amand and Mika Dionne are 9 and 10 years old, going nowhere fast in the heat of a New Brunswick summer. The luminous, idyllic flipside to the Old Fashion Waltz.

Seconde valse

2000

Curling poster
5.9

Set in a rural Québec village in the dead of winter, Jean-François, a single father, works at a deserted bowling alley at night and in a rundown motel during the day. His daughter, Julyvonne, never leaves their home. Jean-François isolates her in fear that contact with the outside world will scar her the way it has him.

Curling

2010