The film community is responding to the Sebastian Lelio death, confirmed after the Chilean filmmaker was found at his home in Santiago on Friday, November 6, 2026. He was 52. Lelio, who won an Academy Award for A Fantastic Woman, had been filming as recently as the day before, according to reports surrounding his passing.
A Sudden Loss in Santiago
Lelio’s partner, actress Amalia Kassai, found him around midday and contacted local police, Chilean outlet El Mercurio Online reported. The family issued a statement through Kassai’s social media account, attributing his death to health complications without specifying a cause.
In the statement, the family expressed deep sorrow over the loss and asked for privacy during what they described as a painful time. No additional medical information has been made public.
Sony Pictures Classics, the distributor behind A Fantastic Woman, paid tribute to Lelio as a singular filmmaker whose work continued to surprise audiences worldwide.
From Chile to the Academy Stage
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, in 1974, Lelio relocated to Chile as a young child and later studied at the country’s film school. He became a prominent figure in Chilean cinema after the dictatorship era.
His international breakthrough arrived with Gloria in 2013, a film centered on a divorced woman navigating new beginnings. The role earned Paulina Garcia the best actress award at the Berlin Film Festival.
Lelio’s defining achievement came with A Fantastic Woman, featuring Daniela Vega as a transgender woman seeking dignity after her partner’s sudden death. The film won the 2018 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, marking Chile’s first Oscar in that category.
A Career Across Languages and Genres
Lelio directed several English-language dramas, including Disobedience, a forbidden romance starring Rachel Weisz, and Gloria Bell, his own English-language remake of Gloria with Julianne Moore. He also directed the Florence Pugh thriller The Wonder and the 2025 Cannes musical The Wave. He wrote or co-wrote nearly all of his films.
His work often centered on female protagonists and outsiders, a thematic thread that ran from his early Chilean productions to his later international projects.
Unfinished Projects at the Time of Death
At the time of his death, Lelio was in production on Chilean Poet, an adaptation of Alejandro Zambra’s novel. He had been shooting the film the day before he died, leaving its future uncertain.
He was also attached to direct Voyagers, with Andrew Garfield cast as Carl Sagan and Daisy Edgar-Jones as Ann Druyan.
For a filmmaker whose career gave voice to those on the margins, the incomplete work stands as a quiet loss. Lelio is survived by his partner and a body of work that reshaped contemporary Chilean cinema and reached audiences far beyond it.
