Atom Egoyan - Rotten Tomatoes Celebrity Profile

Biography

This page uses content from the Atom Egoyan biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Atom Egoyan, OC (born July 19, 1960) is a critically acclaimed Canadian filmmaker of Armenian descent. His work often explores themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy or other power structures. Stylistically, Egoyan's films often follow non-linear plot-structures, in which events are placed out of sequence in order to elicit specific emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information.

Egoyan was born to Joseph and Shushan Yeghoyan in Cairo, Egypt. He and his sister Eve Egoyan (who is now a concert pianist based in Toronto) were raised by their parents in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. As a teenager, he became interested in reading and writing plays. Significant influences included Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter. He graduated from Trinity College in the University of Toronto. Egoyan is now based in Toronto, where he lives with his wife, Arsinée Khanjian, an actress who appears in many of Egoyan's films, and their son, Arshile. In 1999, Egoyan was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Egoyan has directed a dozen full-length films, several television episodes, and a few shorter pieces. His early work was based on his own material, and he received some notice for the film Exotica (1994), but it was Egoyan's first attempt at adapted material that resulted in his best-known work, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), which landed him an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. He also directed Sarabande featuring Khanjian and Lori Singer, a drama which flanks cellist Yo-Yo Ma's performance of Bach's Fourth Suite for Unaccompagnied Cello, as part of the latter's Inspired by Bach series for Sony Classical. The film Ararat (2002) also generated some publicity for Egoyan, as it was the first major motion picture to deal directly with the Armenian Genocide. Ararat later won the Best Picture prize at the Genie Awards (strangely, he failed to receive a Best Director nomination for the same film).

In 2004, Egoyan opened Camera Bar, a 50-seat cinema-lounge on Queen Street West in Toronto.

Egoyan is a member of the faculty at the European Graduate School. Beginning in September 2006, Egoyan will teach at the University of Toronto for the next three years. He will join the faculty of arts and science as the dean's distinguished visitor in theatre, film, music and visual studies.

Filmography

Where the Truth Lies (2005)
Ararat (2002)
Krapp's Last Tape (2001)
Felicia's Journey (1999)
The Sweet Hereafter (1997)
Bach Cello Suite #4: Sarabande (1997) with Yo-Yo Ma
Exotica (1994)
Calendar (1993)
Gross Misconduct (made for TV) (1993)
The Adjuster (1991)
Speaking Parts (1989)
Family Viewing (1987)
Next of Kin (1984)

External links

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.