Georges-Henri Denys Arcand CC GOQ RCA (French: [dəni aʁkɑ̃]; born June 25, 1941) is a Canadian filmmaker.

During his four decades career, he became one of the most internationally-recognized director from Quebec,[1] earning widespread acclaim and numerous accolades for his "intensely personal, challenging, and intellectual films.

For The Barbarian Invasions, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, losing to Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation.

Entering his teen years, the family moved to Montreal and although he dreamed about being a professional tennis player, while studying for a master's degree in history at the Université de Montréal he became involved in film making, which gave him a new sense of direction.

In this era he was involved in several student film projects in collaboration with classmates Denis Héroux and Stéphane Venne, including À l'est d'Eaton, Alone or with Others (Seul ou avec d'autres) and Over My Head (Jusqu'au cou).

A social activist, he made a feature-length documentary in 1970 titled Cotton Mill, Treadmill (On est au coton) that showed the exploitation of textile workers.

In 1982, his documentary, Comfort and Indifference (Le confort et l'indifférence) won the Prix Luc-Perreault from the Quebec Film Critics' Association.

[8] In 1986 he wrote and directed what was until then the highest-grossing film in Quebec (and Canadian) history, The Decline of the American Empire (Le Déclin de l'empire américain).

Three years later Arcand repeated this award-garnering performance with his widely acclaimed 1989 film Jesus of Montreal (Jésus de Montréal) winning the same three Genie awards, plus the Jury Prize at Cannes.