Born in Egypt, Atom Egoyan was two years old when he moved with his Armenian parents to British Columbia. An honors student at the University of Toronto, Egoyan knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life upon graduation: in 1982, he formed his own motion picture production company, Ego Film Arts. Two years later, he wrote and directed his first feature, Next of Kin (1984). One critic has described Egoyan's films as Chinese puzzles: difficult to penetrate, unpredictable when penetrated. A prime example is The Adjuster (1991), in which two apparently prim, above-suspicion types--an insurance adjuster and his movie-censor wife--play voyeur when they think no one is looking. Atom Egoyan has won multiple industry awards for his subsequent films Calendar (1994) and Exotica (1994)
Atom Egoyan
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- His parents gave him the name Atom in tribute to an Egyptian nuclear reactor that had recently been completed at the time of his birth.
- Graduated from college with a degree in International Relations, but became interested in film while making a short film his freshman year.
- Met his wife, Arsinée Khanjian, when she was cast in his first feature film, Next of Kin, in 1984.
- Became an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1999.
- Named his son, Arshile, after the Armenian artist Arshile Gorky.