Atom Egoyan CC (/ɛˈɡɔɪən/; Armenian: Ատոմ Եղոյեան, romanized: Atom Yeghoyan; born July 19, 1960) is an Armenian-Canadian filmmaker. One of the most preeminent directors of the Toronto New Wave, he emerged during the 1980s and made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), a hyperlink film set in a strip club. He followed this with his most critically acclaimed film, The Sweet Hereafter (1997), an adaptation of the Russell Banks novel of the same name, for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.