Directing

Costa-Gavras

Born February 12, 1933 · Loutra-Iraias, Greece (age 93)

Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (Greek: Κωνσταντίνος "Κώστας" Γαβράς; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thriller Z (1969), which won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and Missing (1982), for which he won the Palme …

Known For

No Other Choice

No Other Choice · 2025

No Other Choice

MovieComedyCrime

After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.

Spies Like Us

Spies Like Us · 1985

MovieComedyAdventure

Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for nuclear war.

Burke & Hare

Burke & Hare · 2010

MovieComedyThriller

Two 19th-century opportunists become serial killers so that they can maintain their profitable business supplying cadavers to an anatomist.

The Ax

MovieComedyCrime

Bruno loved his job as a middle manager at a paper company, but optimistically views being laid off as an opportunity. After two years of searching for a comparable position, optimism turns to desperation. His wife works two jobs, and their marriage slowly deteriorates as their hold on the middle class slips away. Bruno concocts a grimly audacious plan to identify and kill his fellow job applicants so that he is the only qualified person left.

MovieThrillerCrime

A prominent politician is murdered during a demonstration. The government and army are trying to suppress the truth, but a tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.

Betrayed

Betrayed · 1988

MovieThrillerCrime

An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.

Adults in the Room

Adults in the Room · 2019

Adults in the Room

A universal theme: a story of people trapped in an inhuman network of power. The brutal circle of the Eurogroup meetings, who impose on Greece the dictatorship of austerity, where humanity and compassion are utterly disregarded. A claustrophobic trap with no way out, exerting pressures on the protagonists which finally divide them.

A Monkey in Winter

A Monkey in Winter · 1962

A Monkey in Winter

MovieDramaComedy

During World War II, an innkeeper vows to abstain from alcohol for the sake of his family. Years later, as they thrive in Normandy, his resolve is tested by a charming advertising professional who loves to drink.

Filmography

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No Other Choice

No Other Choice · 2025

No Other Choice

MovieComedyCrime

After being laid off and humiliated by a ruthless job market, a veteran paper mill manager descends into violence in a desperate bid to reclaim his dignity.

Thanks

Spies Like Us

Spies Like Us · 1985

MovieComedyAdventure

Two bumbling government employees think they are U.S. spies, only to discover that they are actually decoys for nuclear war.

Tadzhik Highway Patrolman

Burke & Hare

Burke & Hare · 2010

MovieComedyThriller

Two 19th-century opportunists become serial killers so that they can maintain their profitable business supplying cadavers to an anatomist.

French Family

The Ax

MovieComedyCrime

Bruno loved his job as a middle manager at a paper company, but optimistically views being laid off as an opportunity. After two years of searching for a comparable position, optimism turns to desperation. His wife works two jobs, and their marriage slowly deteriorates as their hold on the middle class slips away. Bruno concocts a grimly audacious plan to identify and kill his fellow job applicants so that he is the only qualified person left.

Director

MovieThrillerCrime

A prominent politician is murdered during a demonstration. The government and army are trying to suppress the truth, but a tenacious magistrate is determined not to let them get away with it.

Director

Betrayed

Betrayed · 1988

MovieThrillerCrime

An FBI agent posing as a combine driver becomes romantically involved with a Midwest farmer who lives a double life as a white supremacist.

Director

Adults in the Room

Adults in the Room · 2019

Adults in the Room

A universal theme: a story of people trapped in an inhuman network of power. The brutal circle of the Eurogroup meetings, who impose on Greece the dictatorship of austerity, where humanity and compassion are utterly disregarded. A claustrophobic trap with no way out, exerting pressures on the protagonists which finally divide them.

Director

A Monkey in Winter

A Monkey in Winter · 1962

A Monkey in Winter

MovieDramaComedy

During World War II, an innkeeper vows to abstain from alcohol for the sake of his family. Years later, as they thrive in Normandy, his resolve is tested by a charming advertising professional who loves to drink.

Assistant Director

Mad City

Mad City · 1997

MovieThrillerDrama

A misguided museum guard who loses his job and then tries to get it back at gunpoint is thrown into the fierce world of ratings-driven TV gone mad.

Director

Joy House

Joy House · 1964

MovieThrillerCrime

A small-time con man on the run from his girlfriend's gangster husband hides out in a strange, brooding mansion run by two mysterious women, where he finds himself trapped in deception between the two.

Assistant Director

Mr. Klein

Mr. Klein · 1976

MovieMysteryDrama

Paris, France, 1942, during the Nazi occupation. Robert Klein, a successful art dealer who benefits from the misfortunes of those who are ruthlessly persecuted, discovers by chance that there is another Robert Klein, apparently a Jewish man; someone with whom he could be mistakenly identified, something dangerous in such harsh times.

Co-Writer

The Stupids

The Stupids · 1996

MovieComedyFamily

An incredibly dull-witted family unknowingly stumble upon an illegal weapons deal while on the trail of their "stolen" garbage.

Gas Station Attendant

Missing

Missing · 1982

MovieDramaMystery

Based on the real-life experiences of Ed Horman. A conservative American businessman travels to Chile to investigate the sudden disappearance of his son after a military takeover. Accompanied by his son's wife he uncovers a trail of cover-ups that implicate the US State department which supports the dictatorship.

Director

Bay of Angels

Bay of Angels · 1963

MovieRomanceDrama

A bank clerk is drawn into the risky world of a gorgeous gambling addict.

Assistant Director

Amen.

MovieDramaHistory

Kurt Gerstein—a member of the Institute for Hygiene of the Waffen-SS—is appalled to discover that a poison gas he helped discover is being used to kill Jews. Driven by his conscience to alert the rest of the world, Gerstein teams up with a young Jesuit priest, Riccardo Fontana, but their protestations fall on deaf ears in the Vatican.

Screenplay

Lumière & Company

Lumière & Company · 1995

Lumière & Company

MovieDramaDocumentary

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes.

Director

Music Box

Music Box · 1989

MovieDramaThriller

A lawyer defends her father accused of war crimes, but there is more to the case than she suspects.

Director

Womanlight

Womanlight · 1979

Having both suffered extreme losses, two disparate souls try to form a relationship for consolation rather than romance.

Director

The Day and the Hour

The Day and the Hour · 1963

The Day and the Hour

MovieDramaAction

In the midst of World War II, a French widow falls for a U.S. captain whom she hides from the Nazis and helps escape to Spain.

Assistant Director

State of Siege

State of Siege · 1972

MovieThrillerDrama

Assigned to South America, US official Philip Michael Santore is employed by a counterinsurgency agency. His position makes him a target for a local band of guerrillas, and, before long, Santore is kidnapped. As a prisoner, he undergoes interrogation, shedding light on the violent situation in the country. Once the insurgents are done with their questioning, they must decide whether Santore lives or dies.

Director

Carolco, un rêve hollywoodien

Carolco, un rêve hollywoodien · 2026

Carolco, un rêve hollywoodien

MovieDocumentary

Capital

Capital · 2012

MovieDramaThriller

The head of a giant European investment bank desperately clings to power when an American hedge fund company tries to buy them out.

Director

Eden Is West

Eden Is West · 2009

Desperate to break free from the poverty of his homeland, Elias boards a ramshackle people-smuggling trawler to France. But when the boat is raided by police, Elias leaps into the ocean, eventually finding himself washed up on a Mediterranean beach resort called Eden. So begins Elias odyssesy across Western Europe to Paris, where wondrous promise, helpful new friends and perilous dangers await him every step of the way.

Director

The Sleeping Car Murders

The Sleeping Car Murders · 1965

The Sleeping Car Murders

MovieCrimeThriller

Six people travel by overnight train from Marseilles to Paris. When they arrive, one of them, a young woman, is found dead in a sleeping berth. The police, led by Inspector Grazzi, investigate the other five passengers, suspecting that one among them was responsible. However, as the investigation is stepped up, the others start turning up dead. It's up to the remaining two to solve the case, lest they become the next victims.

Director