It was very important that it be done in such a way that it be executed with complete conviction. If I had done it both ways, if I was trying to cover myself in case it didn't work, then it would have been to no purpose.

Egoyan has won four awards each at the Cannes Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival. Atom Egoyan OC (Armenian: Աթոմ Եղոյեան; born July 19 1960) is a critically acclaimed Canadian stage director and film director. Egoyan is now based in Toronto where he lives with his wife Arsinée Khanjian a trilingual (English French and Armenian) Armenian-Canadian actress who appears in many of Egoyan's films and their son Arshile (named after the Armenian-American painter Arshile Gorky) who attends the Toronto French School.

His most critically acclaimed film is The Sweet Hereafter (1997) and his biggest commercial success is Chloe (2009). Egoyan's 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. Egoyan has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay both for The Sweet Hereafter.