Chilean director Sebastián Lelio, Oscar winner for A Fantastic Woman, dies at 52

Sebastian LelioOscar-winning Chilean director for a fantastic womanhas died this Friday, November 6, at 52 years old. According to Chilean media reports, the filmmaker died at his home in Las Condes, in Santiago de Chile. At this time, the cause of his death has not been publicly announced.

The death occurred when the director was working on the shooting of his new film, Chilean poet, adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alejandro Zambra. Filming had begun at the end of September and included the production of Fábula and the participation of Amazon MGM Studios. It has not yet been announced how the director’s death will affect the development of the film.

Born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1974, Lelio became one of the most internationally recognized figures in Chilean cinema. He began his career in feature films with The holy family (2005), which was followed Christmas (2009) and The Year of the Tiger (2011). His international recognition came with Gloria (2013), the portrait of a woman looking for a new romantic relationship in adulthood, for which Paulina García won the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlinale. He later directed a fantastic woman (2017), a drama about transsexuality starring Daniela Vega and winner of the Oscar for best foreign language film in 2018.

His English film debut came with Disobedience (2017), starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams, about the reunion of two women in an Orthodox Jewish community. Then he made Gloria Bell (2018), a remake of Gloria headed by Julianne Moore, and The prodigy (2022), with Florence Pugh as a nurse who investigates a girl’s supposed miraculous fast in 19th-century Ireland. His most recent filmography includes The wave (2025), while, at the time of his death, he was working on the adaptation of Chilean poetby Alejandro Zambra.