Constantin Gavras was born in 1933 in Greece. He is a filmmaker, famous for his movies dealing with political issues.
Costa Gavras studied literature in La Sorbonne, Paris. In 1956, he left university to study cinema at the French national film school, IDHEC (Institut des Hautes Etudes Cinématographiques).
He started his cinema career being the assistant of Yves Allégret, Jean Giono, René Clément, René Clair, Jacques Demy…
In 1965, he directed his first movie, “Compartiments tueurs”.

Then he directed more than twenty movies, including: “Z” (1969) awarded with Oscars of best directing and best foreign language film, “The Confession” (1971), “State of siege” (1973), “Missing” (1981), which won the Oscar for best writing, "Music Box" (1989) which won the Golden Bear prize at the 1990 Berlin Film Festival, “Amen” (2001) awarded with the best screenplay Cesar in 2002, and “Eden is West” (2009).

He was president of the Cinémathèque française from 1982 to 1987, and was re-elected as President in 2007.

In 1991, he chaired the Festival Cinémémoire, and in 1992 he was vice-president of the Premier Siècle du Cinéma festival.

He is a member of the Paris Committee since it was created in 2007.