Cairo-born, Canadian-raised, and of Armenian descent, Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated contemporary filmmakers on the international scene today. His works have received both critical acclaim and commercial success around the world. Saluted and honoured at Cannes, Berlin, Moscow, Paris, London, New York, Taipei, Budapest, Greece, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States as an immensely talented filmmaker, Atom Egoyan, viewed left on set with actor Ian Holm, galvanized international stature as a film artist when The Sweet Hereafter (1997) became the most-honoured film of the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, winning the Grand Prize of the Jury, and was nominated the same year for a double Academy Award for both Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. In 1999, Mr. Egoyan was made an Officer of the Order of Canada and Brock University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree. [Photo, courtesy Johnnie Eisen]