Blog | = MovieMaker Magazine

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On February 11, 2008 the winners of the annual Dan David Prize = were=20 announced. In addition to Al Gore and Tom Stoppard, this = year=E2=80=99s group of=20 prize laureates who have had =E2=80=9Can outstanding scientific, = technological,=20 cultural or social impact on our world=E2=80=9D included = moviemaker Atom Egoyan.=20 Writer-director Egoyan shares the $1 million = =E2=80=9CPast=E2=80=9D award with Stoppard=20 and author Amos Oz.

The Dan David Prize has been awarded annually since 2000 by = businessman=20 and philanthropist Dan David. Each year specific fields are chosen = within=20 the temporal categories of Past, Present and Future.

Born in Egypt to Egyptian-Armenian parents, Egoyan has been = making=20 movies for more than 25 years. His most widely recognized film, = The=20 Sweet Hereafter starring Ian Holm and Sarah Polley, garnered = him two=20 Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Orignal = Screenplay.=20

While this somber study of a town=E2=80=99s struggle to deal = with a fatal=20 school bus crash might be his most famous work, Egoyan was chosen = for The=20 Dan David Prize for his works depicting Armenian history and = culture,=20 namely his 2002 film Ararat. The film, one of the only = movies ever=20 made to breach the subject of the Armenian genocide, is a = meditation not=20 only on the effects of the atrocities claimed by the Armenian = people, but=20 also on the struggle to represent such horrors through art, as the = film=20 focuses on the making of a film about the genocide.

All of the prize laureates will be honored at an awards = ceremony held=20 at Tel Aviv University on May 19, 2008.

For more information on the Dan David Prize visit http://www.dandavidprize.org/.= =20