Costa Gavras and his producer-wife premiere their latest film in Venice

The 86 year old franco-Greek film politico maestro looking hale and hearty on the red carpet for the premiere of his latest film "Adults in the Room" focusing on the crisis of Greece within the European Union.

The 86 year old franco-Greek film politico maestro looking hale and hearty on the red carpet for the premiere of his latest film "Adults in the Room"  

The eagerly-awaited new film by Greek director Costa-Gavras, had its world premiere on Saturday, August 31 at the Venice Film Festival.  The franco-Greek director, now 86, appeared hale and hearty on the venice red carpet for the opening of his latest film which looks behind the ongoing Greek crisis within the European Union.  

The director of “Z” , “State of Siege” , “Missing” and so many other films that have brought large political issues to the screen, has staged this new film with his usual verve in the manner of a thriller in which the game of politics becomes a source of tension in the closed sessions of European technocratic meetings.

By Alex Deleon

Greek-born French director Costa-Gavras (Z, Missing, Music Box) received the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker2019 award of the 76th Venice International Film Festival (28 August - 7 September 2019), dedicated to a personality who has made a particularly original contribution to innovation in contemporary cinema.

The award ceremony for Costa-Gavras took place on Saturday August 31st 2019 in the Sala Grande (Palazzo del Cinema) at 10 pm, before the world premiere screening Out of Competition of the new film he wrote and directed, Adults in the Room (France, Greece, 124') with Christos Loulis, Alexandros Bourdoumis, Ulrich Tukur.

With regards to this acknowledgment, the Director of the Venice Film Festival Alberto Barbera has stated: “There are many reasons why Costa-Gavras deserves to be counted among today’s great directors, but there is one reason in particular. He is able to turn politics into a fascinating topic, a subject like any other, not just for the initiated and already convinced few, but as well for the greater public, using every means at cinema’s disposal in order to touch the greatest number of spectators possible. This director, reserved yet determined, has always held that all movies are political. This not only enables him to dodge the label of political director, which has always been attached to him – often in a polemical and reductive manner – but also to claim a peaceful and sincerely democratic faith in a type of mainstream cinema that makes the viewer reflect and question, and also sparks deep emotions. Thanks to the intrinsic, authentic indignation of his movies, to the deep humanism that characterizes them, and to the freedom they demand, Costa-Gavras calls into question our weaknesses and our submissiveness. It has been said that, “if we have fallen asleep, his cinema wakes us up. And if we have lost hope, his films restore it to us.”