French New Wave Pioneer Agnès Varda Dead at 90

Agnès Varda, the luminary director of acclaimed French New Wave films like Faces Places and Cléo From 5 to 7, has died at the age of 90. Her family confirmed her passing in a statement on Friday, per Variety, saying she died of breast cancer surrounded by family and friends in her Paris home. A funeral is expected to take place in Paris on Tuesday.

Varda’s widely acclaimed career as a director included 24 feature films over more than 60 years. Her last film Varda by Agnès premiered just last month at the Berlin Film Festival, where she was presented with the honorary Berlinale Camera award. She won the Grand Jury Prize at the festival in 1965 for her film Le Bonheur.

Varda was born in Brussels, Belgium, in 1928 and moved with her family to the south of France during World War II. She took an interest in photography and film early on, eventually directing her first feature film, La Pointe Courte, while she was still in her mid-20s. Her star rose quickly and she went on to make some of the most influential films in the French New Wave, inspiring other directors like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut with her brave and independent style. She was also held up for her work advocating for women’s rights in the predominantly male film world, and her films often contained candid discussions of women’s issues that were striking for the time period.

Varda’s only Academy Award nomination was for Best Documentary Feature for 2017’s Faces Places, which she made while traveling around the French countryside and meeting local villagers with the French graffiti artist JR. She also received an honorary Academy Award, or Governors Award, that same year for her lifelong dedication to film. Her works are included on Paste’s lists of the best French films of all time and the best documentaries of all time, and her film Faces Places was included in our list of the best films of 2017. We named her among the most innovative working filmmakers last January.

Varda is survived by her two children, Rosalie Varda and Mathieu Demy.

See a few early tributes to the revered filmmaker below.

Immense sadness. For almost 65 years, Agnès Varda’s eyes and voice embodied cinema with endless inventiveness. The place she occupied is irreplaceable. Agnès loved images, words and people. She’s one of those whose youth will never fade. pic.twitter.com/cpquJXJtwK

— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) March 29, 2019

Work and life were undeniably fused for this legend. She lived FULLY for every moment of those 90 damn years pic.twitter.com/SHnRbGoDmr

— Barry Jenkins (@BarryJenkins) March 29, 2019

For my shooting star wherever you are… Agnes Varda pic.twitter.com/M92Ha2VXky

— JR (@JRart) March 29, 2019

Agnès Varda, the only woman director of the French New Wave, on the rise of women directors: “I feel proud.” pic.twitter.com/cgxLrsiMlKpic.twitter.com/rIhTLpnFU6

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) March 29, 2019

RIP Agnès Varda, a icon of independent cinema before it even had that name. ‘Faces Places’ was an inventive, funny capper on an extraordinary career. Was funny to see her, smiling with bemusement, on the 2017 Oscar circuit. She knew she didn’t need one. She was already a legend. pic.twitter.com/RDYP0Zi12O

— edgarwright (@edgarwright) March 29, 2019

Last year at Cannes, Agnès Varda invited me to breakfast. She spoke of how she was in the last year of her life. About choices. And change. I told her what she meant to me. She held my hand as I did. Merci, Agnes. For your films. For your passion. For your light. It shines on. pic.twitter.com/NP2FSJACY9

— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 29, 2019

“I feel that between weight and lightness, I choose lightness. And I feel I’m dancing, the dance of cinema.”

Accepting an honorary Oscar in 2017, Agnès Varda brought warmth to the room & proceeded to dance onstage.

Thank you for your vision, Agnès. We know you’re still dancing. pic.twitter.com/ge43gXkXGN

— The Academy (@TheAcademy) March 29, 2019

One of my fondest TIFF memories was Agnès Varda and her scavengers, after a screening of THE GLEANERS AND I, passing out cakes and treats that others deemed disposable. She found treasure everywhere. R.I.P.

— Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) March 29, 2019

“I’m most touched when I meet people in the streets who say, ‘Thank you, you gave me a lot of happiness.’ More than when they say ‘Bravo.’ I think it’s more touching to get a ‘Thank you,’ no?”

Thank you, Agnès, our dear friend. pic.twitter.com/SL9KVVkNv4

— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) March 29, 2019

“We all have inside ourselves a woman who walks alone on the road. In all women there is something in revolt that is not expressed.” —Agnès Varda pic.twitter.com/w4cfHTnffq

— Anna Rose Holmer (@BARFH) March 29, 2019

RIP legendary French New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda. Even now, I’ve never forgotten the shack draped with celluloid at the end of THE BEACHES OF AGNÈS: pic.twitter.com/x1fhcI5T1S

— Kenji Fujishima (@kenjfuj) March 29, 2019

Rest in peace, Agnès Varda.

Thank you for seven decades of perpetually influential and inventive work that has moved us deeply. pic.twitter.com/vKdWuP1WRy

— Film Society of Lincoln Center (@FilmLinc) March 29, 2019

RIP Agnès Varda pic.twitter.com/mgZnd8bxWj

— Jacqueline (@THATJacqueline) March 29, 2019

And let us never forget the time Agnes Varda sent a cardboard cutout of herself to the Oscars nominee luncheon. pic.twitter.com/3UcDwsgdNw

— Doug Jamieson (@itsdougjam) March 29, 2019