France: Award-winning Belgian actress Émilie Dequenne has passed away at the age of 43 after a battle with cancer.
Dequenne gained international recognition at 18 when she won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 for her role in Rosetta.
She later earned another Cannes award for À Perdre la Raison (Our Children) in 2012 and won a César, one of France’s top film honors, for Les Choses Qu’on Dit, les Choses Qu’on Fait (The Things We Say, the Things We Do) in 2021.
Dequenne predominantly worked in French-language films but also made notable appearances in international projects.
Her breakout role in Rosetta was particularly poignant, as she had been unemployed after losing her job in a food factory when she was cast in the film. The movie, a raw portrayal of a teenager’s struggle to escape poverty, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, with director Luc Dardenne later praising her powerful performance.
Émilie Dequenne nous a quittés après s’être battue contre la maladie.
Revélée dans Rosetta des frères Dardenne, ce rôle émouvant lui vaut d’être récompensée à Cannes à 17 ans.
Nommée 5 fois aux César, elle remporte celui de meilleure actrice dans un second rôle. Nous avons… pic.twitter.com/UCu59AOfnV
— Rachida Dati ن (@datirachida) March 16, 2025
Beyond Rosetta, Dequenne starred in several acclaimed films, including La Fille du RER (The Girl on the Train, 2009), Pas Son Genre (Not My Type, 2014), and Close, a 2022 Cannes nominee.
French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati honored Dequenne, stating that, “Francophone cinema has lost, too soon, a talented actress who still had so much to offer.”
Dequenne had revealed in October 2023 that she was battling adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), a rare cancer of the adrenal gland. In one of her final Instagram posts on World Cancer Day in February, she wrote: “What a tough fight! And we don’t choose…”
