Name: Atom Egoyan
Date of Birth: 19 July 1960
Atom Egoyan was born in Egypt in 1960. His parents moved to Victoria BC when he was a small child. The family was of Armenian heritage but Egoyan was quickly assimilated into a West coast Canadian community. He left Victoria to go to the University of Toronto where he studied international relations and the classical guitar. His first feature film 'Next of Kin' (1984) examines the story of a WASP Canadian young man who infiltrates an Armenian family in Toronto, pretending to be their los... t son Bedros. From this film onwards Egoyan manifested an interest in family dynamics and perverse desire imbrocated with questions of technology and visual representation. Through the 1980s and early 90s he continued making a series of films exploring questions about identity, home and exile ('Family Viewing' (1987), '' (1989), '' (1991)). His film '' (1994) marked a transition in his career. This intense study of sexuality and mourning focussed around a Toronto nightclub, was shown at the Cannes film festival and went on to gain wider audiences in Canada, the USA and the UK. From this point in his career Egoyan has worked with bigger budgets and has begun to take on adaptations of literary works, 'Sweet Hereafter' (1997), 'Felicia's Journey' (1999), and '' (2005). He has also continued his interest in his Armenian heritage, making a low budget film 'Calendar' (1993) in Armenia and making the key film to date about the Armenian Genocide '' (2002). Starring in all his films and an integral part of his creative enterprise is his partner . Egoyan has also created a family of actors and technicians who return frequently to work on his projects. His latest film '' (2008) was shown at Cannes and also at the Toronto International Film festival. Egoyan currently resides in Toronto, ON with his partner and their son Arshile.Read more Less
