Sebastián Lelio, Chilean Filmmaker Behind ‘Disobedience,’ ‘The Wonder’ and the Oscar-Winning ‘A Fantastic Woman,’ Dies at 52

Sebastián Lelio, the Chilean writer-director and film festival favorite behind such dramas as Gloria, Disobedience, The Wonder and the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman, has died. He was 52.

Lelio was found dead Friday by his partner, Amalia Kassai, at his home in the Las Condes section of Santiago, the Chilean news operation El Mercurio Online reported.

Lelio co-wrote and directed the steamy Gloria (2013), which premiered in Berlin and starred Paulina García as a middle-aged divorcee. He then handled the bittersweet American remake, Gloria Bell (2018), starring Julianne Moore and John Turturro.

He also co-wrote and directed the psychological thrillers Disobedience (2017), which starred Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola and bowed at Toronto, and The Wonder (2022), a study of religious fanaticism and sexual abuse that starred Florence Pugh and debuted at Telluride.

A Fantastic Woman (2017) starred Daniela Vega as a transgender woman who finds it tough coping with the death of her partner. It won the foreign language Oscar in 2018 — the first Chilean film to win in that category — the Golden Bear at Berlin and the Spirit Award for best international film.

“Shocking and enraging, funny and surreal, rapturous and restorative, this is a film of startling intensity and sinuous mood shifts wrapped in a rock-solid coherence of vision,” The Hollywood Reporter chief film critic David Rooney wrote in his review.

His most recent film was the Cannes entry The Wave (2025), a musical drama that revolves around a Chilean college student (Daniela López). It was inspired by the feminist protest movement that swept his country in 2018.

Born in Argentina on March 8, 1974, Lelio and his family moved to Viña del Mar, Chile, at age 2. He studied at the Chilean Film School and made a series of short films, followed by his first feature, the sexual drama The Sacred Family (2005), which impressed audiences at the San Sebastián Film Festival.

His other early films included Navidad (2009) and The Year of the Tiger (2011). He was working on the film Chilean Poet, based on a novel by Alejandro Zambra, at the time of his death.