IFFI 2017 Handbook

Lifetime Achievement Award
Atom Egoyan
Atom Egoyan is one of Canada’s most celebrated arthouse directors. Exotica, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes’94, was his
international breakthrough film. The Sweet Hereafter, his most critically acclaimed film, received two Academy Award nominations.
Ararat, about the Armenian genocide in the Turkish Ottoman Empire, centred on child survivor Arshile Gorky, who went on to become
the pioneer of American abstract expressionism. Where the Truth Lies, Adoration and The Captive have all competed for the Palme
d’Or in Cannes. Egoyan has also directed theatre and opera, including an adaptation of Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe, winner of The Irish
Times/ESB Award for Best Direction. He has directed award-winning opera productions for the Canadian Opera Company and the
Lincoln Center Festival, New York. Egoyan’s art installations have been presented at the Venice Biennale. His work, Steenbeckett,
commissioned by the UK’s Artangel, is part of the permanent collection of the Tate. His films have been presented in several
retrospectives across the globe, with complete career overviews in Paris, Madrid, New York and Brussels. Egoyan was knighted by
the French government and is a Companion of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest honour.
INTERNATIONAL CINEMA IFFI 2017
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