Sebastián Lelio, director of A Fantastic Woman and Gloria, dies aged 52

Chilean film-maker Sebastián Lelio has died at the age of 52.

He was best known for the Oscar-winning trans drama A Fantastic Woman and his English-language films included Gloria Bell and The Wonder.

His partner Amalia Kassai announced his death on Instagram without specifying the cause of death but telling followers, in Spanish, that it was a painful time for his family. Chilean media reports that he died at his home in Las Condes, Santiago.

Lelio was born in Argentina but moved to Chile at the age of two. He studied journalism for one year before graduating from film school and then released 9/11 documentary Cero in 2003. His first narrative film The Sacred Family premiered at the San Sebastián film festival in 2005.

His follow-up, 2009’s Christmas, premiered at Cannes but it was 2013’s Gloria that provided him with a major international breakthrough. The drama, about a woman in her late 50s who starts dating again, premiered at Berlin and won its lead star Paulina García an acting award at the festival.

Lelio followed it up with A Fantastic Woman, a drama about the life of a trans woman, another breakout that became the first Chilean film to win the Oscar for best international feature. In a five-star review, the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw called it “a sublime study in the exalted ordeal of grief”.

“When we released it in 2017, a gender identity bill had been dormant in congress for seven years,” he said in a Guardian interview in 2018. “Somehow, the film’s release, and the year in which it became globally known, helped to reactivate the discussion in Chile.”

He made his English language debut with London-set drama Disobedience which told a queer love story between women played by Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams. It was nominated for five British independent film awards.

Lelio then remade Gloria as Gloria Bell, then set in America and starring Julianne Moore in the lead role. He followed it with a critically acclaimed adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s novel The Wonder starring Florence Pugh.

“I love working with actors, and need to know they trust me and can explore, get lost, be foolish or brave, and I’ll take care of them,” he said to the Guardian. “I love working on set – it is where the sparkle is.”

His final film was 2025’s The Wave, a musical protest drama that premiered at Cannes.

“Making a film is like a gift you leave somewhere – you then hide and see what happens,” he said.