Agnès Varda

Belgian-born French film director whose films, photographs, and art installations focused on documentary realism, feminist issues, and social commentary with a distinctive experimental style.

Film historians have cited Varda's work as central to the development of the French New Wave; her employment of location shooting and non-professional actors were unconventional in the context of 1950s French cinema. Among other awards and nominations over her career, she received honorary Palme d'or and Academy Awards, won a Golden Lion and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.

She lived with Jacques Demy, also a French director, from 1959; they were married from 1962 until his death in 1990. Varda had two children: a daughter, Rosalie Varda (born 1958), with Antoine Bourseiller, and a son, Mathieu Demy (born 1972), with Demy.

Varda died from cancer on 29 March 2019 in Paris, at the age of 90.