The European Film Academy has named Hiam Abbass as the recipient of its European Achievement in World Cinema Award, to be presented at the 39th European Film Awards ceremony in Athens on January 16, 2027. The announcement, made October 21, recognizes a career built across more than 100 films over three decades, in Arabic, French, and English.
Born in Nazareth and based in Paris since the late 1980s, Abbass made her international breakthrough with Hany Abu-Assad's Paradise Now (2005), a film that received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. Her subsequent choices widened the geography: Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (2007), Eran Riklis's Lemon Tree (2008), which won her the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Actress, and Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049 (2017). She received two prior European Film Awards nominations, both for performances in films directed by Riklis.
In television, she played Marcia Roy across 23 episodes of Succession (2018–2023), earning a Primetime Emmy nomination. The role required precision above projection.
The EFA's citation lists more than 100 films as the basis for the honor. ARTE is accompanying the announcement with a special presentation of her work on arte.tv, including The Syrian Bride, Inheritance (her feature directorial debut, which premiered at Venice's Giornate degli Autori), and Raja Amari's Foreign Body.
The 39th European Film Awards ceremony takes place in Athens on January 16, 2027.
