Hiam Abbass to receive European Film Academy honor in Athens
The Palestinian actor will receive the European Achievement in World Cinema Award at the European Film Awards on 16 January 2027.
Hiam Abbass has been named to receive the European Film Academy’s 2027 European Achievement in World Cinema Award at the 39th European Film Awards in Athens on 16 January 2027. The honor recognizes a career spanning more than 100 films, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Deadline reported that Abbass will be an honorary guest at the ceremony. The Hollywood Reporter quoted the stated reason for the award as ‘for her astounding body of work.’
Hiam Abbass’s film and television career
Abbass took her first leading film role in Ariane Mnouchkine’s La Nuit Miraculeuse in 1989. Her later films include Paradise Now, The Visitor and Blade Runner 2049. Her work has crossed Palestinian, Arab and international productions, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
She was previously nominated for two European Film Awards, both for films directed by Eran Riklis: the People’s Choice Award for The Syrian Bride in 2005 and European Actress for Lemon Tree in 2008. The latter performance also earned her an Asia Pacific Screen Award, according to both reports.
On television, Abbass played Marcia Roy in HBO’s Succession, earning a Primetime Emmy nomination in 2023, and appeared in the Hulu series Ramy, The Hollywood Reporter reported. Her film work also includes In Syria, for which she received a French Lumière Awards nomination in 2018.
Abbass was born in Nazareth to a Palestinian family forced into exile in 1948. She began acting at the Palestinian National Theatre El-Hakawati in East Jerusalem, later left for London during a European theatre tour and has lived in Paris since the late 1980s, according to the two reports.
Films planned alongside the European Film Awards
Abbass also directs. Her film Inheritance screened at festivals in Gijón and São Paulo and at Venice Days in 2012. The Hollywood Reporter said European culture channel ARTE will present a selection of her films in partnership with the European Film Academy: The Syrian Bride is planned for television and streaming on arte.tv, while Inheritance and Foreign Body are planned for online viewing.
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Sources and context
- Hiam Abbass To Receive Honorary European Film Academy AwardDeadline
- Hiam Abbass to Receive European Achievement in World Cinema AwardThe Hollywood Reporter
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.