The Contrast of Two Canadian Filmmakers - Essay Example

Egoyan’s work explores isolation and alienation themes, by featuring characters whose characters are presented through bureaucracy, technology, and other power structures. Mostly, his films follow a non-linear plot structure meaning that events are placed sequentially to bring out emotional reactions from the audience by withholding key information. Most of his films end with operatic emotions and are mostly rooted in the romantic search through intimacy.
David’s style in filmmaking involves exploring people’s fears of body transformation and infection. He tries to combine psychology with the physical. From the viewer’s point of view, Egoyan’s work has been highly influenced by Cronenberg’s sense of remoteness from emotions in his style and narrative.

Line of specialization
Atom Egoyan is one of the internationally recognized figures known as a stage director and a filmmaker. On the other hand, David Cronenberg is known as an actor, filmmaker, and screenwriter. The only similarity between these two Cinema Icons is that they are both filmmakers.

Career and commercial success
Egoyan's career can be classified as pre and post-Exotica. Before Exotica, the first major release in America, Egoyan was only recognized in Canada for his ultra-low-budget films which the government subsidized partially. Such films include Next of Kin (1984), Speaking Parts (1989), and Family Viewing. Exotica was first produced in the year 1994. The release of Exotica in 1994 made him gain local and international recognition as it marked a transition point in his artistic work. In 1997, he made another film that gave rise to international recognition called The Sweet Hereafter based on an American Novel by Russell Banks. The film made him the winner of 8 GENIE Awards in Canada.
In 1998, he was nominated for two awards at the Hollywood academy awards after the release of the sweet hereafter

Awards
David Cronenberg has several awards. In 2004, he was named 2nd best director in the history of the genre by the Science Fiction magazine, Strange Horizons. In the same year, he was listed 9th among the world’s best 40 directors by the Guardian. In the year 2007, he was named the 17th greatest director by Total Film.
Aton Egoyan has won four awards at the Cannes Film and Toronto International festivals. In April 2012, he received TARA Awards.

History of Studio D
It was created as a branch of the National film board to make films and documentaries for and about women in Canada. This happened in 1974 when Kathleen Shannon gave this idea as a recommendation to the Canadian parliament. Kathleen joined NFB in 1956 and was among the more influential persons who fought for the improvement of the status of women on the board. Initially, women occupied a minority role at the NFB and were given duties as support staff instead of key roles such as film directing and production. In that year 1974 with the anticipation of the world’s women's day, she presented the idea of creating a new studio that would be dedicated to women and their contribution in the film making, to the board.
This created a motivating factor for the women working at the NFB to demand changes and pressurize the government and the public sector to reconsider and improve the position of women in these institutions. Shannon was then appointed as the pioneer executive producer of the studio d.
Some of the things that set studio D films aside from other NFB films
Iconic women's documentaries production films created by NFB since it was dedicated to the development of films by women and for women
The films produced and filmed at studio d were based more on personal stories and the interrelation with the larger sociopolitical environment. They, therefore, conveyed a message of urgency and intimacy

The films enhanced better presentation of the diversity of Canadian women in terms of race, ethics, and sexuality. They were therefore more authentic and accomplished
Studio d created films to pacify the feminist agitations
Besides being a new idea and venture, studio D meets with several huddles such as resistance from the public and also from within NFB. The resistance was so strong such that it appeared to the executive producer that there were deliberate intentions to make this project fail. According to Shannon, studio d was created just as a token to verify the growing feminine agitations.