Julie Gavras

Who is Julie Gavras?

Julie Gavras is a French film director and writer. She is the daughter of film director Costa-Gavras. Her first feature-length fiction film Blame it on Fidel was released in France in November 2006.

After graduate studies in literature and law, Julie Gavras turned to cinema. Gavras started as an assistant director in Italy and France on commercials, television movies and feature films. She worked with directors as diverse as Robert Enrico, Claire Devers, Jacques Nolot, Alexandre Jardin, Camille de Casabianca, Roberto Faenza and Michele Soavi. She also worked with her father on his 2002 World War II drama Amen, on which she served as an assistant director.

In 1998, she directed a short film called Oh les beaux dimanches! produced in Marseille by Comic Strip. Two years later, she directed her first documentary, From Dawn to Night: Songs by Moroccan Women. It was based on a play by Alain Weber mounted at the Bouffes du Nord theater in Paris during the Festival d'Automne. It was broadcast on Arte. In January 2002, her second documentary was released theatrically in France: The Pirate, the Wizard, the Thief and the Children. The film looks at a class of nine-year-olds who make a film at school.