Political Cinema Icon Costa-Gavras to Receive Lifetime Honor at 2025 César Awards.

Published on 07 October 2024, by Marine Beaumont | Italy, Europe.

Pioneering political filmmaker Costa-Gavras will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at the 2025 César Awards, presented by the French Film Academy.

At 91 years old, Costa-Gavras, originally from Greece and later exiled to Paris, is renowned for his politically driven films. His most acclaimed works include Z (1969), which offers a fictionalized portrayal of the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis, leading to the nation's military dictatorship. The film earned two Oscars, including Best International Feature and Best Film Editing for Françoise Bonnot. Another standout film, Missing (1982), addresses the disappearance of an American journalist following the 1973 Chilean coup supported by the U.S. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and received four Oscar nominations, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Costa-Gavras’ filmography also includes Music Box (1989), in which Jessica Lange plays a Chicago lawyer defending her father, who is accused of war crimes. His 2003 film Amen examines the Vatican’s alleged involvement with the Nazis during World War II, while Adults in the Room (2019) explores the Greek economic crisis of 2015 and the country’s resistance to European Union austerity measures. Notably, the latter was his first film shot in Greece and in the Greek language. In addition to Missing, Costa-Gavras’ English-language films include Mad City featuring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman, Betrayed with Debra Winger and Tom Berenger, and Hanna K., in which Jill Clayburgh plays a lawyer defending a Palestinian man accused of terrorism.