Annual Top Films Lists

Top 150 Most Anticipated Foreign Films of 2019: #80. Guest of Honour – Atom Egoyan

Published on January 3, 2019

Guest of Honour

Canada’s Atom Egoyan ends a four year break with his sixteenth feature Guest of Honour. Serving as producer alongside Simone Urdl and Jennifer Weiss. The film is financed through Playtime, Elevation Pictures, Ego Film Arts and The Film Farm. Described as a “twisted psychological thriller,” Egoyan’s cast includes David Thewlis, Luke Wilson, Rossif Sutherland, Laysla De Oliveira, and Gage Munroe. Egoyan’s usual cinematographer Paul Sarossy will be lensing. Egoyan came to prominence with 1987’s Family Viewing, winning the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in Locarno and an Honorable Mention in Berlin’s Forum sidebar for the same title. Cannes became Egoyan’s usual haunt, competing six times (Exotica, 1994; The Sweet Hereafer, 1996; Felicia’s Journey, 1999; Where the Truth Lies, 2005; Adoration, 2008; The Captive, 2014) and winning the FIPRESCI Prize in 1994, the FIPRESCI, Ecumenical Jury and Grand Jury Prize in 1996, and again the Ecumenical Jury Prize in 2008. After considerable lukewarm response to 2013’s Devil’s Knot and 2014’s The Captive, Egoyan went to Venice with 2015’s Remember. For The Sweet Hereafter, Egoyan received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Screenplay.

Gist: Egoyan’s screenplay explores the relationship of a father and his twenty-year-old daughter who wants to remain in jail for a sexual assault she knows she’s been wrongfully accused of.

Release Date/Prediction: Egoyan began filming Guest of Honour in November 2018. We expect to see Egoyan compete for a seventh time in Cannes or a second time in Venice.

Nicholas Bell

Los Angeles based Nicholas Bell is IONCINEMA.com's Chief Film Critic and covers film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and TIFF. He is part of the critic groups on Rotten Tomatoes, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA), the Online Film Critics Society (OFCS) and GALECA. His top 3 for 2021: France (Bruno Dumont), Passing (Rebecca Hall) and Nightmare Alley (Guillermo Del Toro). He was a jury member at the 2019 Cleveland International Film Festival.