Egoyan is a director, screenwriter and producer, was born in Egypt and grew up in Canada, but considers himself Armenian. During his studies of international relations and music at the Toronto University, he made short films such as Howard in Particular (1979), After Grad with Dad (1980), Peep Show (1981) and Open House (1982) that was shown on Canadian television. In 1984, he made his first feature film Next of Kin, and afterwards worked on television. He made the TV film In this Corner (1985) and one episode each of the TV series The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. His later films, such as Family Viewing (1987), Speaking Parts (1989) and The Adjuster (1991), attracted attention at many international film festivals. He partly shot his film Calendar (1993) in Armenia, honoring his roots. His film Exotica (1994) was the first Canadian film in the last ten years to have managed to enter the competition program of the Cannes film festival. It won the award of the international film critics at Cannes (FIPRESCI). Afterwards he made the acclaimed The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Felicia\'s Journey (1999), Ararat (2002) that tells the story of Armenian genocide and Where the Truth Lies (2005).