During the Pinochet dictatorship, which ran from 1973 to 1990, this picture was banned in Chile.
About two days before filming requiring shots of tanks, the Mexican Army denied access to such military vehicles. The picture's Mexican art department then on the run designed and created mock-up dummy tanks for the film which were made of wood.
The film screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 where it won both the prestigious Palm d'Or and the Best Actor award with the latter going to Jack Lemmon.
Ed Horman and Joyce Horman ("Beth" in the film) worked very closely with Costa-Gavras, Jack Lemmon, and Sissy Spacek throughout the film's production. Costa-Gavras said that after Augusto Pinochet died (in December 2006), both he and Joyce Horman felt regret that the former Chilean dictator was not brought to justice.
The Pop Matters website states that "'Missing' provoked an official response from the U.S. State Department and caused a mild bit of controversy upon release. Costa-Gavras said, in an interview included with the film [on DVD] that he wanted to force the audience to participate and play detective. The film's studio, Universal, wanted the opening scene to read "Chile, September 1973", but the director astutely points out "these things are still happening. People are disappearing all over the world"".