Oscar-winning director Sebastián Lelio, who made Berlin a second home, dies at 52

Chilean director Sebastián Lelio has died at the age of 52. He won an Oscar for "A Fantastic Woman" and spent several years living in Berlin, a city that left its mark on his work.

What happened?

His partner, the German-Chilean actress Amalia Kassai, announced his death on Instagram "with great sadness". She gave "health reasons" as the cause.

Local media reported that Lelio was found lifeless at his home in Las Condes, in the Santiago metropolitan region. Chile's culture minister, Francisco Undurraga, said he was deeply affected and that Lelio's films had brought Chile "to the top of the audiovisual world". The actors' union Chile Actores called his death "an enormous loss" for the country's culture and film industry.

Why Berlin mattered to him

Lelio first came to Berlin in 2012 as a guest of the artists' programme of the DAAD (Germany's academic exchange service). He spent half a year editing "Gloria", which premiered in the competition of the Berlinale (Berlin's international film festival) in February 2013. Paulina García won the Silver Bear for best actress, and the film took home three prizes in all.

He stayed in the German capital for several years and opened a South American restaurant, also called "Gloria", in the Kreuzberg district. Later he directed a Hollywood remake of the film with Julianne Moore in the lead role.

In 2017, while preparing "A Fantastic Woman", he said that what he experienced with "Gloria" was "a milestone in our lives" and that the city had unexpectedly become very important. The idea for the new film was born in Berlin, he said, and the city had "interfered" in it.

The Oscar and the early years

"A Fantastic Woman" ("Una mujer fantástica") follows a young trans woman, played by Daniela Vega, whose happy relationship ends with the sudden death of her older partner. She then has to fight prejudice again. The film won the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the 2017 Berlinale and, in March 2018, the Oscar for best foreign-language film. It remains the only time that award has gone to Chile.

Lelio was born in 1974 in Mendoza, Argentina, and grew up in Viña del Mar, Chile. He studied at film school in Santiago and made several short films before his 2005 drama "La sagrada familia". Even then, he was interested in looking at prejudice and social hypocrisy from a fresh angle.