Sebastián Lelio, the Chilean director behind A Fantastic Woman and Gloria, has died at 52. His partner, actress Amalia Kassai, announced his death on November 6 in an Instagram statement shared on behalf of their families.
The family attributed his death to health reasons without identifying a medical condition. Emol reported that prosecutors and investigators visited his home in Las Condes, Santiago, and that the Eastern Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office assigned the investigation to the homicide division of Chile’s Investigative Police.
His most recent released film, The Wave, premiered in the Cannes Premiere section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2025. The musical drew on Chile’s 2018 feminist student protests, following a music student who joins demonstrations against harassment and abuse.
In September, he began shooting Poeta Chileno, based on Alejandro Zambra’s novel. The adaptation was his tenth feature.
Lelio’s Family Requests Privacy and Arranges a Public Farewell
View this post on Instagram
The statement, signed by the Lelio Kassai and Campos Watt families, remembered both his character and his contributions to Chilean culture. In the Spanish announcement reproduced by TVN, they asked for consideration while grieving: “As a family, we ask for respect for our privacy and consideration during these difficult times.”
Chile declared November 7 and 8 days of official mourning. The decree ordered national flags flown at half-staff at government buildings and other public institutions in recognition of his work.
The family also arranged a public farewell at the Cineteca Nacional de Chile, at the Centro Cultural La Moneda in Santiago. According to Chilevisión, the announced visiting hours were 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on November 7 and 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. on November 8, local time, with entry subject to capacity.
In its remembrance, the Cineteca recalled his efforts to ensure his films were preserved in its archive and the screenings he had attended to present his work.
Amalia Kassai Shares Photographs and a Personal Goodbye
View this post on Instagram
Hours after the family announcement, Kassai posted photographs of herself with Lelio and addressed him directly. “I love you in this life and in all those to come,” she wrote in Spanish, according to Cooperativa‘s account of the post.
She acknowledged how much he meant to people beyond their family, describing him as someone who lit up everything around him. Kassai thanked those who had sent messages of love and support but explained that she was not ready to answer them. She ended the tribute with a brief declaration: “Only love remains.”
Gloria and A Fantastic Woman Brought International Recognition
Born in Mendoza, Argentina, and raised in Chile, Lelio trained at the Escuela de Cine de Chile. His first feature, La Sagrada Familia, premiered at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 2005. According to the Cineteca, he shot it in three days and spent nearly a year editing it.
His 2013 film Gloria followed a divorced woman seeking romance and independence in Santiago. Its star, Paulina García, won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin International Film Festival. Lelio later revisited the story with Julianne Moore in the English-language remake Gloria Bell.
A Fantastic Woman, released in 2017, starred Daniela Vega as Marina, a transgender woman facing discrimination after her partner’s death. At the Academy Awards in March 2018, it won Best Foreign Language Film, becoming the first Chilean feature to win that category. Lelio and co-writer Gonzalo Maza had also won Berlin’s screenplay prize for the film.
His work outside Chile included Disobedience, starring Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams as women reconnecting within an Orthodox Jewish community in London. In the 2022 Netflix drama The Wonder, Florence Pugh played an English nurse investigating a young girl’s apparent ability to survive without food in 19th-century Ireland.
Poeta Chileno Was Near the End of Its Shoot
Filming had continued during the week of Lelio’s death, with only a few shooting days remaining, La Tercera reported. The production brought him back together with cinematographer Benjamín Echazarreta, a frequent collaborator whose credits also include The Wave.
Zambra’s 2020 novel follows Gonzalo, an aspiring poet, and Vicente, the son of his partner Carla, who develops literary ambitions of his own. The film’s cast included Felipe Zepeda, Davie Gaete and Clemente Rodríguez.
Kassai worked on casting alongside actress Macarena Teke, whom Lelio had directed in La Sagrada Familia. Fábula, Amazon MGM Studios and other international partners were involved in the production. The partners had not publicly announced plans for completing or releasing the film.