Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio has died at 52, his partner Amalia Kassai announced without disclosing medical details. His work ranged from Gloria and the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman to English-language films with Rachel Weisz, Julianne Moore and Florence Pugh. His final film, The Wave, premiered at Cannes in 2025.
Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio, known for A Fantastic Woman, has died in Santiago at 52. His films brought him international recognition, including the Oscar for that drama about a trans woman.[1], [2]
His partner Amalia Kassai announced the death without disclosing medical details. Chilean media said he died at home in Las Condes. Born in Argentina, Lelio moved to Chile at two. He studied journalism for a year before completing film school.[1]
His documentary Cero appeared in 2003; his first narrative feature, The Sacred Family, premiered at San Sebastián in 2005. Christmas screened at Cannes in 2009. Gloria, released in 2013, followed a woman in her late fifties who starts dating again. Its lead, Paulina García, won an acting award at the Berlin festival.[1]
Lelio’s English-language debut Disobedience told a London love story with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. He remade Gloria in the United States as Gloria Bell, starring Julianne Moore. Florence Pugh led his adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder. His final film, The Wave, was a musical protest drama that premiered at Cannes in 2025.[1]
