Hiam Abbass to Receive 2027 European Achievement in World Cinema Award
Hiam Abbass will receive the 2027 European Achievement in World Cinema Award, The Hollywood Reporter reported on 21 October 2026. The honour recognises what the award's citation calls her "astounding body of work". It will be presented at the 39th European Film Awards in Athens on 16 January 2027.
Abbass was born in Nazareth to a Palestinian family forced into exile in 1948. She started acting at El-Hakawati, the Palestinian National Theatre in East Jerusalem. She has lived in Paris since the late 1980s, and she has held French citizenship since 1991, according to Screen Daily.
Her first leading role came in 1989, in Ariane Mnouchkine's La Nuit Miraculeuse. Since then she has appeared in more than 100 films across Palestinian, Arab and international productions. Many of her best-known roles have been in films by the Israeli director Eran Riklis. She is a two-time European Film Award nominee, and both nominations were for his films.
Her other recognition includes a People's Choice Award nomination in 2005 for The Syrian Bride. She received a European Actress nomination in 2008 for Lemon Tree, which also won her an Asia Pacific Screen Award. In 2018 she was nominated for a French Lumière Award for her performance in In Syria. In 2023 she received a Primetime Emmy nomination for playing Marcia Roy in HBO's Succession.
Abbass has also worked behind the camera. She directed Inheritance, which screened at Venice Days in 2012.
Audiences can see more of her work before the ceremony. ARTE, working with the European Film Academy, will present a selection of films starring her, including The Syrian Bride, Inheritance and Foreign Body, according to the same report.
The European Film Academy has also brought her to the stage before. It said she presented the European Film 2024 award at a ceremony that year, in a post on its Instagram account. The 2027 event will mark her return to Athens as a recipient rather than a presenter.
The European Achievement in World Cinema Award is given in the name of the European Film Academy, which runs the annual awards. The Athens ceremony is the next scheduled step, and the film academy's official site already lists the 39th edition in Athens in 2027.
