Atom Egoyan

Directing

Atom Egoyan

Born 1960-07-19 · Cairo, United Arab Republic [now Egypt]

Atom Egoyan CC (/ɛˈɡɔɪən/; Armenian: Ատոմ Եղոյեան, romanized: Atom Yeghoyan; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a hyperlink film set in a strip club. He followed this with his most critically acclaimed film, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), an adaptation of the Russell Banks novel of the same name, for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Egoyan's other significant films include The Adjuster (1991), Ararat (2002), Where the Truth Lies (2005), Adoration (2008), Chloe (2009), Devil's Knot (2013), and Remember (2015). His works often explore themes of alienation and isolation, featuring characters whose interactions are mediated through technology, bureaucracy, or other power structures. His 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. Many of his films also draw on his experiences as a first-generation immigrant, and as a member of the Armenian diaspora. In addition to his Oscar nods, Egoyan has won eight Genie/Canadian Screen Awards, out of 25 total nominations. He received the 2008 Dan David Prize for "Creative Rendering of the Past" and the 2015 Governor General's Performing Arts Award. He has been a member of the Order of Canada since 1999, and was ascended to Companion in 2015. Egoyan is married to actress Arsinée Khanjian, whom he has often cast in his films. Description above from the Wikipedia article Atom Egoyan, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Venice 70: Future Reloaded poster
5.0

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Venice 70: Future Reloaded

2013

Barney's Version poster
7.0

The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.

Barney's Version

2010

The Stupids poster
4.8

An incredibly dull-witted family unknowingly stumble upon an illegal weapons deal while on the trail of their "stolen" garbage.

The Stupids

1996

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film poster
10.0

Follows the "Beckett on Film" project, which produced film adaptations of writer Samuel Beckett's nineteen stage plays. The documentary features excerpts from the "Beckett on Film" versions of "Not I", "Krapp's Last Tape", "Endgame", "What Where", and "Waiting for Godot".

Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film

2003

Viva Varda! poster
7.9

A pioneering post-war female film director, an instigator of the New Wave who was honored by Hollywood in her own lifetime, Agnès Varda has become a source of inspiration for a whole new generation of young filmmakers. With movies like Cléo de 5 à 7, Le Bonheur, Sans toit ni loi, Les Glaneurs et la glaneuse, she created a quirky, open to the world, sensitive to the disenfranchised, often silly body of work. Always one finger on the pulse, she shook everything up, including cinema itself which she refused to constrict to pure fiction or long-form films.

Viva Varda!

2023

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Missing

2016

This Film Is Not Yet Rated poster
7.1

Kirby Dick's provocative documentary investigates the secretive and inconsistent process by which the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) rates films, revealing the organization's underhanded efforts to control culture. Dick questions whether certain studios get preferential treatment and exposes the discrepancies in how the MPAA views sex and violence.

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

2006

Calendar poster
6.3

A photographer and his wife travel across Armenia photographing churches for a calendar project. Travelling with them is a local man acting as their driver and guide. As the project nears completion, the distance between husband and wife grows.

Calendar

1993

Camilla poster
5.6

Freda Lopez, an aspiring musician, travels with her husband to the beautiful beaches of Georgia where she befriends Camilla, an odd and exotic elderly woman who plays the violin. When the two embark on a journey together, Camilla reclaims a lost love and makes peace with herself and her son, while Freda discovers inner resources she never knew she had.

Camilla

1994

Le cri du rhinocéros poster
5.0

Marc Labrèche, the Director of this documentary, himself an author, actor and host, meets other creators to ask them these questions that inhabit him. Do artists have an expiry date? Do we create our best works in our youth or, on the contrary, does experience allow us to develop a greater mastery of our medium? In this respect, are there important differences between the different forms of art such as music, cinema and literature?

Le cri du rhinocéros

2018

At Sundance poster
5.8

A group portrait of filmmakers attend the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Featuring Matthew Harrison, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Todd Haynes, Greg Araki, Abel Ferrara, Atom Egoyan, James Gray, Robert Redford, Haskell Wexler, among many others. Co-directed by Amy Hobby. [Filmed in Pixelvision and blown-up to evocatively grainy 16mm.]

At Sundance

1995

Rewind This! poster
6.9

Home video changed the world. The cultural and historical impact of the VHS tape was enormous. This film traces the ripples of that impact by examining the myriad aspects of society that were altered by the creation of videotape.

Rewind This!

2013

It Came from Kuchar poster
7.3

It Came from Kuchar is the definitive, feature documentary about the legendary, underground filmmaking twins, the Kuchar brothers. George and Mike Kuchar have inspired two generations of filmmakers, actors, musicians, and artists with their zany, "no budget" films and with their uniquely enchanting spirits.

It Came from Kuchar

2009

The Rep - A Documentary poster
NR

Follows the first year of business for Alex, Charlie, and Nigel as they try to make their theatre, The Toronto Underground Cinema, a success in the dying world of repertory cinema. The film also places the cinema in context to the larger world of rep. Featuring interviews with theatres such as Film Forum in NYC, The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, and The New Beverly Cinema in L.A., and celebrities such as Kevin Smith, John Waters, Atom Egoyan, and George A. Romero, the world of repertory cinema will come alive as a vibrant and culturally significant medium that needs to be preserved

The Rep - A Documentary

2012

No artwork available
1.0

The film was inspired by one of the most important documentaries shot by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Talking Heads (1980). The director asked his interlocutors seemingly simple questions, such as “Who are you?” and “What do you want?”.

Talking Heads 2021

2021

Sculpting Memory poster
NR

Sculpting Memory places Atom Egoyan in an audiovisual environment woven from the fabric of his own films―a conceptual move that references Egoyan’s adaptation of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape while evoking Egoyan’s own work as a moving-image installation artist and his concern with the recording and displaying of images.

Sculpting Memory

2015

Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche poster
6.0

This compelling documentary explores Canadian film culture and tries to discover what defines Canadian film through interviews with notable filmmakers.

Weird Sex and Snowshoes: A Trek Through the Canadian Cinematic Psyche

2004

The Box of Sun poster
10.0

In this silent, surrealist fantasy, thick clouds in a scorched sky prevent the sun from reaching the earth. Only a group of children in this gray world have access to a source of light which is in the wintry woods. They collect it into small boxes that they use to revive people imprisoned in pictures. A young woman grieving for her lost lover goes in search of these children so that they can bring her beloved back to life.

The Box of Sun

1988

"I Will Revenge This World With Love" - S. Paradjanov poster
6.5

The author of the film decides to leave the country where she lives, in connection with the outbreak of the dramatic events, and return home to Armenia in search of a worthy example and solutions on how to live on. Paradjanov's house becomes a place of inspiration and a point of no return to toxic reality.

"I Will Revenge This World With Love" - S. Paradjanov

2024

No artwork available
5.3

Documentary about the films of Atom Egoyan.

Formulas for Seduction: The Cinema of Atom Egoyan

1999

A Portrait of Arshile poster
8.5

Egoyan juxtaposes home-video images of his son Arshile with a self-portrait of the famed Armenian artist, Arshile Gorky; Egoyan narrates in English, while his wife narrates in Armenian. The self-portrait made from a photo of the artist as a child at the time of the great massacre of the Armenians is used as a focus for meditations on the nature of self-awareness, artistic expression, and the relationship between the artist and the viewer.

A Portrait of Arshile

1995

No artwork available
NR

A documentary about a journey to Beirut

Citadel

2006

Behind the camera

Chloe poster
6.1

Catherine and David Stewart are a well-to-do couple living in a posh area of Toronto, but all is not well in paradise. Catherine suspects that David is cheating on her, so she hires an escort named Chloe to meet David and see if he gives in to temptation — but events spin out of control when Chloe spills the details of her torrid encounters.

Chloe

2010

The Captive poster
5.8

Eight years after their daughter Cassandra's abduction tore them apart, an estranged couple discover disturbing clues that indicate that she is still alive.

The Captive

2014

The Captive poster
5.8

Eight years after their daughter Cassandra's abduction tore them apart, an estranged couple discover disturbing clues that indicate that she is still alive.

The Captive

2014

The Captive poster
5.8

Eight years after their daughter Cassandra's abduction tore them apart, an estranged couple discover disturbing clues that indicate that she is still alive.

The Captive

2014

Devil's Knot poster
6.2

The savage murders of three young children sparks a controversial trial of three teenagers accused of killing the kids as part of a satanic ritual.

Devil's Knot

2013

To Each His Own Cinema poster
6.4

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

To Each His Own Cinema

2007

To Each His Own Cinema poster
6.4

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, "To Each His Own Cinema" brought together 33 of the world's pre-eminent filmmakers to produce short pieces exploring the multifarious facets of cinema and their perspective on the state of their chosen artform in the early 21st century.

To Each His Own Cinema

2007

Exotica poster
6.6

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.

Exotica

1994

Exotica poster
6.6

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.

Exotica

1994

Exotica poster
6.6

In the upscale Toronto strip club Exotica, dancer Christina is visited nightly by the obsessive Francis, a depressed tax auditor. Her ex-boyfriend, the club's MC, Eric, still jealously pines for her even as he introduces her onstage, but Eric is having his own relationship problems with the club's female owner. Thomas, a mysterious pet-shop owner, is about to become unexpectedly involved in their lives.

Exotica

1994

Remember poster
7.4

With the aid of a fellow Auschwitz survivor and a hand-written letter, an elderly man with dementia goes in search of the person responsible for the death of his family.

Remember

2015

Seven Veils poster
5.6

Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has been given the task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, she allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.

Seven Veils

2025

Seven Veils poster
5.6

Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has been given the task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, she allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.

Seven Veils

2025

Seven Veils poster
5.6

Jeanine, an earnest theatre director, has been given the task of remounting her former mentor’s most famous work, the opera Salome. Haunted by dark and disturbing memories from her past, she allows her repressed trauma to color the present as she re-enters the opera world after so many years away.

Seven Veils

2025

Venice 70: Future Reloaded poster
5.0

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

Venice 70: Future Reloaded

2013

Where the Truth Lies poster
6.2

An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.

Where the Truth Lies

2005

Where the Truth Lies poster
6.2

An ambitious reporter probes the reasons behind the sudden split of a 1950s comedy team.

Where the Truth Lies

2005

The Sweet Hereafter poster
6.9

A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.

The Sweet Hereafter

1997

The Sweet Hereafter poster
6.9

A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.

The Sweet Hereafter

1997

The Sweet Hereafter poster
6.9

A small mountain community in Canada is devastated when a school bus accident leaves more than a dozen of its children dead. A big-city lawyer arrives to help the survivors' and victims' families prepare a class-action suit, but his efforts only seem to push the townspeople further apart. At the same time, one teenage survivor of the accident has to reckon with the loss of innocence brought about by a different kind of damage.

The Sweet Hereafter

1997

Adoration poster
5.9

For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.

Adoration

2009

Adoration poster
5.9

For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.

Adoration

2009

Adoration poster
5.9

For his French-class assignment, a high school student weaves his family history in a news story involving terrorism, and goes on to invite an Internet audience in on the resulting controversy.

Adoration

2009

Montreal Stories poster
5.0

Six stories about Montreal. 1: A young housewife from Toronto samples the nightlife using basic French. 2: The tale of a painting of Montreal's first mayor, Jacques Viger. 3: During a hockey game, Madeleine tries to tell Roger she wants a divorce after forty years of marriage. 4: A visitor to a conference on pictographs arrives at the airport, where the female customs officer steals a momento from each person. 5: As she is being driven to the hospital in an ambulance after an auto accident, Sarah recalls her life. 6: At a diplomatic reception, an older woman reminisces about her grand love in Montreal.

Montreal Stories

1991