Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne died of a rare cancer on Sunday, March 16, in a hospital just outside Paris, her family and her agent told AFP. She was 43 years old.
She revealed in October 2023 that she was suffering from adrenocortical carcinoma, a cancer of the adrenal gland. Her first role in the film "Rosetta", by the Dardenne brothers, launched her career after she won best actress at the Cannes Film Festival for her performance in the film, which also won the Palme d'Or.
She picked up a string of other awards in appearances in mainly French-language films, including the 2009 movie "The Girl on the Train" and the 2012 drama "Our Children".
She returned to the Cannes film festival in 2024 to mark the 25th anniversary of her triumph there with the Dardenne brothers, and to promote the English-language disaster movie, "Survive", released the same year. It was the last film she appeared in before illness forced her to stop working.