Filmmaker Agnes Varda, a central figure of the French New Wave and feminist activist who later won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, has died at 90.
Her production company Cine Tamaris confirmed her death from cancer after French media reported the news.
Varda's rich filmography includes movies such as Cleo From 5 to 7, Sans Toit Ni Loi - for which she won the Golden Lion in 1985 - Jacquot De Nantes and Les Glaneurs Et La Glaneuse.
Nicknamed the Grandmother of the New Wave, Varda was a fixture for years at the Cannes Film Festival, where she presented more than a dozen films from 1958 to 2018.
She took part in two Cannes juries, and the festival gave her an honorary Palme d'Or in 2015 for her life's work.
She was the first woman to receive such an honour, and regularly sought more recognition for women in the industry.
At last year's Cannes festival, she joined jury president Cate Blanchett for a bilingual speech against sexual misconduct in the wake of the MeToo movement.
"Women are not a minority in the world, and yet our industry says the opposite. The stairs of our industry must be accessible to all. Let's climb," she said.
The Cannes Festival tweeted that Varda's death was a cause for "immense sadness".
"For almost 65 years, Agnes Varda's eyes and voice embodied cinema with endless inventiveness. The place she occupied is irreplaceable. Agnes loved images, words and people. She's one of those whose youth will never fade," the tweet continued.
With her distinctive half-red, half-grey hairstyle, Varda was instantly recognisable on the European film circuit, where she was often one of the few female directors in the crowd.
She was honoured last month at the Berlin Film Festival with the Berlinale Camera award for lifetime achievement. The festival had its highest number of women directors yet, some of whom named Varda as an inspiration.
Her 2017 documentary with street artist JR - Faces Places - was nominated for an Oscar, making Varda, then 89, the oldest woman ever nominated - and won best documentary at the Independent Film Spirit Awards.
Varda was married to French director Jacques Demy, who died in 1990. She is survived by her two children, Mathieu Demy and Rosalie Varda, who are both involved in French filmmaking.
Australian Associated Press
