Sebastián Lelio, Oscar-Winning 'A Fantastic Woman' Director, Dies at 52
Seven Lights
Sebastián Lelio, the Chilean filmmaker whose trans drama “A Fantastic Woman” won the Academy Award for best international feature film in 2018, died Friday, Nov. 6, at his home in Santiago. He was 52.
His partner, the actress and director Amalia Kassai, discovered his body and announced the death in a statement on Instagram, citing health problems. “We are going through a time of deep sorrow, and his memory will remain with us forever,” she wrote, asking the family’s privacy be respected. No further details on his health were disclosed.
Born in Argentina, Lelio moved to Chile at age 2. After studying journalism, he made his first film, the 2003 documentary “Cero,” about the attacks of Sept. 11, and released his first narrative feature, “La Sagrada Familia,” in 2005.
His breakout came with “Gloria,” which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2013 and won its star, Paulina García, the Silver Bear for best actress. Lelio later remade the film in English as “Gloria Bell,” starring Julianne Moore and John Turturro.
“A Fantastic Woman,” released in 2017, stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a Chilean trans woman left alone after her older lover dies. Its Oscar win made it the first Chilean film to take the award. After its release, the Chilean government approved a bill allowing people older than 14 to change their name and gender officially, a change some attributed to the film’s impact on the country’s debate over trans rights.
The same year Lelio directed “Disobedience,” a romance set in London’s Hasidic community starring Rachel McAdams and Rachel Weisz, which further raised his international profile. He worked regularly with Chilean producers Pablo Larraín and Juan de Dios Larraín, who backed nearly all of his films.
His final film, the protest musical “The Wave,” played at the Cannes Film Festival in 2025 and starred Kassai. At the time of his death Lelio was mid-production on “Chilean Poet,” an adaptation of Alejandro Zambra’s 2022 novel, again with the Larraín brothers. The future of that film was not immediately clear.