Greek-French director Costa-Gavras will be honored with the Pardo alla carriera Ascona-Locarno achievement award at the 75th edition of the Locarno Film Festival taking place August 3-13 2022.

At the festival, Costa-Gavras will also appear at the Forum @Spazio Cinema in a panel conversation with the audience, while spectators at Locarno75 will also have a chance to see two early titles from his distinguished career: Un homme de trop (Shock Troops, 1967) and Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murders, 1965).

With Z (1969), now regarded as the first great political film of our era, winner of an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Costa-Gavras turned the spotlight on the Regime of the Colonels in Greece. His inquiring gaze continued in L’aveu (The Confession, 1970), on Stalinist show trials, Missing (1982), on the involvement of the CIA in the coup d’état in Chile in 1973, Hanna K. (1983), on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and, more recently, Le capital (Capital, 2012), on corruption in the world of global finance. Costa-Gavras’ career, laureled with two Oscars, a Golden Bear, a Golden Palm and a Jury Prize at Cannes, alongside a bouquet of other awards from major film festivals worldwide, is a courageous, ongoing examination of oppression and the distorted logic of power wrought by politicians of all colors. His call for collective responsibility necessarily has special resonance at this juncture in our history.

“That the Pardo alla carriera should go to Costa-Gavras is virtually an obligation. He is, in all probability, the cineaste who has investigated most extensively the history of the 20th century, without ever being blinded by ideologies. Although regarded as a ‘political filmmaker’, Costa-Gavras is first and foremost a remarkable auteur, gifted with an extraordinary sense of form and style. Never one to wallow in self-referential mannerisms, he has tirelessly renewed his own gaze and approach. Costa-Gavras is the embodiment of a truly noble idea of cinema as a tool for progress and knowledge, a filmmaker who has never given up the conversation with his audience, always offering his candid version of amusement value and entertainment.” – Giona A. Nazzaro, Artistic Director

Past winners

2010 Francesco Rosi

2011 Claude Goretta, Bruno Ganz and Claudia Cardinale

2012 Johnnie To, Harry Belafonte, and Peter-Christian Fueter

2013 Sergio Castellito

2014 Victor Erice

2015 Marlen Khutsiev and Bulle Ogier

2016 Mario Adorf and Jane Birkin

2017 Jean-Marie Straub

2019 Fredi M. Murer

2021 Dante Spinotti

2022 Costa-Gavras