The 15th Mumbai Film Festival, that goes underway from 17 October 2013, will bestow its Lifetime Achievement Award to Academy Award-winner French filmmaker Costa-Gavras. Gavras is best known for his political thrillers such as Z (1969); Missing (1982) for which he won the Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) Oscar; The Little Apocalypse (1993) and Amen (2002). Hailed as one of the world’s living legends in cinema, the Greek-born Gavras has also been conferred with the title of French Knighthood. The winner of numerous international film awards, he has been on the jury of various film festivals. Since 2007, he has also been serving as the President of Cinémath?que Française, one of the world’s largest film archives. “We are honored to confer the Lifetime Achievement Award to Costa-Gavras. His films have been loved and celebrated by millions of cinema lovers worldwide. We are humbled that he has agreed to receive this award,” said Shyam Benegal, Chairman, Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI). Said Festival Director, Srinivasan Narayanan, “When I think of Costa-Gavras, I am overwhelmed by the elegant, humanist films he has bequeathed to humanity, his gentle nudge to stand up and take a position as he did with his announcement for “Z” – “Any similarity to persons or events is deliberate”. It is our good fortune that we would be receiving him in the Mumbai Film Festival and interacting with him for a whole week.” Along with Gavras, legendary Indian actor-director Kamal Haasan will also be bestowed with the Lifetime Achievement Award. The Vishwaroopam actor-director is one of the stalwarts of Indian cinema who recently completed 50 years as actor, director, writer, producer, singer, choreographer and lyricist. Kamal Hassan is best known for his performances in critically-acclaimed and award-winning films such as Moondram Pirai (1982); Nayagan (1987), Pushpak (1987), Appu Raja (1989) and Hey Ram (2000). Speaking about Haasan, Benegal said, “He is a legend in every sense of the term. He is a writer, singer, director, lyricist and an actor par-excellence. We are extremely honored to present the Lifetime Achievement Award to Shri Kamal Haasan.” This edition of Mumbai Film Festival will screen over 200 films from 65 countries and would soon be open for the thousands of cinema lovers to become a part of this celebration of the real spirit of cinema.