Xavier Dolan

The film was at first financed solely by Dolan, but when need for more money arose, he asked Telefilm and the SODEC for subsidies. Each turned him down for different reasons. SODEC, who had loved the project but refused to finance it because it was submitted to a too commercial department, encouraged Dolan to submit it again in more appropriate "indie" department, which he did. In December 2008, SODEC gave him a $400,000 subsidy. In all, the film cost around $800,000 CAD. Dolan said that the system to acquire funding is "an obsolete financing mechanism that holds the creative assets of Quebec hostage".

Dolan has said that he is not particularly influenced by any specific directors, though in 2009, Dolan identified Michael Haneke as one of his favourite directors for his precise camerawork and strong writing, citing Haneke's Funny Games and The Piano Teacher as favourites.

The second feature film Dolan directed, Heartbeats (Les Amours imaginaires), was financed privately. The film follows two friends who are infatuated with the same mysterious young man and their friendship suffers. It premiered in the Un Certain Regard category at the 63e Festival de Cannes in May 2010 where it received a standing ovation. It won the top prize of the Official Competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June and screened at several film festivals throughout 2011, but failed to find audiences in non-French-speaking countries. It received several Genie nominations and the AQCC (Québec association of film critics) award for Best Film.

In May 2012, Dolan announced that his fourth film would be an adaptation of Michel Marc Bouchard's play Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme). It received its world premiere in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festival on 2 September 2013 and won the FIPRESCI award. Though Tom at the Farm played the festival circuits in 2013, it was not released in the U.S. until 2015. In an August 2015 interview, Dolan said: "No one knows me in the States, because the movies have been released in such an awkward, irregular fashion, all by different distributors... I don't want to sound pretentious, but it's puzzling."

In March 2013, Dolan was in pre-production for his first English-language film The Death & Life of John F. Donovan; he co-wrote the screenplay with Jacob Tierney. The film follows John F. Donovan (Kit Harington), a Hollywood film actor whose life and career are turned upside-down when a gossip columnist (Jessica Chastain) exposes his private correspondence with an 11-year-old British fan. The film also stars Susan Sarandon as Donovan's mother and Kathy Bates as his manager. In February 2018, Dolan confirmed via Instagram that Chastain had been cut from the film, and that the story had been altered throughout post-production.

Dolan's 2014 film, Mommy, shared the Jury Prize in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival with Jean-Luc Godard's film Goodbye to Language (Adieu au langage). The jury president for the 2014 festival was Jane Campion and, upon receiving the award, Dolan stated:

The film was singled out by critics as Dolan's "most mature" film to date and proved to be a breakthrough in his career as a director. It was his first film to achieve significant success at the box office, grossing over $3.5 million domestically in 2014, becoming the highest-selling film in Quebec for 2014. According to the Montreal Gazette, over one million people saw the film in France. Mommy won the César Award for Best Foreign Film in 2015.

At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Dolan said that The Piano by Jane Campion was a major inspiration for him. He has also cited seeing the film Titanic as an early influence on his decision to enter the film industry. He has mentioned paying tribute to My Own Private Idaho with a sequence in I Killed My Mother, and that he was influenced by the frog rain scene at the end of Magnolia, but said in 2013:

In 2015, Dolan was selected to serve on the jury for the main competition section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. Also that year, he directed the music video for "Hello", the lead single from the album 25 by Adele. The video broke the Vevo record for most views in 24 hours, over 27.7 million views. The video was also notable for featuring footage shot in IMAX. Dolan received the Juno Award for Video of the Year for directing the video.

The film won the Grand Prix and the Ecumenical Jury Prize. It was also featured in competition at the Sydney Film Festival in June 2016, and later screened at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. It was released in Quebec and France on 21 September 2016. In France, It's Only the End of the World was released to 391 screens, where it debuted at number one at the box office and sold 1,034,477 tickets.

It was chosen as Canada's submission for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In December 2016, it made the shortlist of nine films under consideration for nomination as Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated in January 2017. On 7 December 2016, the film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Canada's Top 10 list.

For his work on It's Only the End of the World, Dolan won the César Awards for Best Director and Best Editing at the 42nd ceremony on 24 February 2017. For his work on the film, Dolan also won 3 Canadian Screen Awards for Best Motion Picture, Best Achievement in Direction and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Dolan played supporting roles in two 2018 American films: Boy Erased, opposite Lucas Hedges and Troye Sivan, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival; and Bad Times at the El Royale, as a British-accented music producer, Buddy Sunday. He appeared in the horror follow-up It Chapter Two, which was released in September 2019. He will next star in Lost Illusions, an adaption of Illusions perdues by Honoré de Balzac, directed by Xavier Giannoli.

The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2019. It was released theatrically on 9 October 2019 by Les Films Séville. In May 2020, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film in the U.S, U.K, Ireland, Australia, Latin America, and India. In December 2019, the film was named to TIFF's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list. The film was nominated for seven awards at the 22nd Quebec Cinema Awards, including Best Supporting Actor for Funk and Best Editing for Dolan. It won for Best Supporting Actress for Bernard, Best Music for Jean-Michel Blais and Most Successful Film Outside Quebec.