Émilie Dequenne, the Belgian actor who gained recognition after winning a top Cannes Film Festival award for her breakthrough role in Rosetta, has passed away at the age of 43, according to a news report.
Her family and agent informed Agence France-Presse that Dequenne died on Sunday in a hospital near Paris due to a rare form of cancer. She had disclosed her diagnosis of adrenocortical carcinoma in 2023. Representatives for Dequenne did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press on Monday.
Conan O’Brien to host 2026 Oscars again
At just 18, Dequenne was named Best Actress at Cannes in 1999. In Rosetta, directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, she played a teenager struggling to escape a difficult life in a caravan park with her alcoholic mother. The film also won the Palme d’Or that year.
Born in Belœil, Belgium, in 1981, Dequenne had an early passion for performance. She studied drama at the Académie de Musique de Baudour.
She became widely recognised in France following her role alongside Catherine Deneuve in The Girl on the Train (2009), which was based on the true story of a woman who falsely claimed to have been the victim of an antisemitic attack. Dequenne also played police officer Laurence Renauld in the French series The Missing.
In 2012, she received the Un Certain Regard Best Actress award at Cannes for Our Children, a psychological drama inspired by the true story of a Belgian woman who killed her five children. Throughout her career, she was nominated for multiple César Awards, finally winning Best Supporting Actress in 2021 for the romantic comedy Love Affair(s).
Reflecting on the challenging role in Our Children, she told The Guardian in 2013, “For my part, I went home every weekend and stayed with my family, which is a very safe place. Making a film like that is something that you have to survive.”
More recently, she co-starred in Close, Lukas Dhont’s poignant boyhood drama, which brought her back to Cannes in 2022. She recognised a connection between her young co-star and her own breakthrough role in Rosetta.
“For me to be here and to come back here after 23 years, it’s very emotional, and there is a reflection between Eden (Dambrine) and myself because I remember when I was here the first time with Rosetta,” she told The Associated Press. “It was a very powerful movie with this main character in every scene, every shot. And that’s the same for him.”
Dequenne returned to Cannes again in 2024 for the 25th anniversary of Rosetta. Her final film was Frédéric Jardin’s post-apocalyptic thriller Survive, released earlier this year.
Although she enjoyed working in England, France, and Belgium, she had little interest in Hollywood.
April 2025 South Indian Film Slate: 12 most hyped releases
“I have been to Hollywood and had meetings, but really they don’t do the kind of films I like to make. And everything is kind of boring, no?” she remarked in her interview with The Guardian. “Honestly, it’s not a fun place, or at least not my kind of fun.”
She is survived by her husband, director and producer Michel Ferracci, and her daughter, Milla Savarese.