Costa Gavras
French-Greek director, born in 1933 in Loutra-Iraias (Greece).
Forced to leave his native Greece owing to his father’s political views, Costa-Gavras came to study in Paris. He studied the humanities at the Sorbonne before attending the IDHEC, then became an assistant to René Clément, Jacques Demy and Jean Becker. He directed his first feature film, The Sleeping Car Murders, in 1965. His two subsequent films were huge successes: Z, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1969, and The Confession, based on Artur London’s book on the Prague trial. Committed to political cinema, he has continued his work between France and the United States, directing over a dozen feature films, including Special Section, Missing (Palme d’Or and Best Actor for Jack Lemmon in 1982), Hanna K, Music Box, Amen, The Axe and Capital. He has been the President of the Cinémathèque Française since 2007. He is awarded a Leopard for lifetime achievement at the 75th Locarno International Film Festival in 2022.
The Sleeping Car Murders (1965) – Shock Troops (1966) – Z (1969) – The Confession (1971) – State of siege (1973) – Special Section (1975) – Womanlight (1979) – Missing (1981) – Hanna K (1983) – Family business (1985) – Summer Lightning (1987) – Music Box (1989) – The Little Apocalypse (1992) – À propos de Nice, la suite (segment Cancobales sur Jean-Marie le Pen à Nice) (1994) – Lumière and Company (1995) – Mad City (1997) – Amen (2001) – The Ax (2004) – Eden is West (2008) – Capital (2012) – Adults in the Room (2019)