Agnès Varda, pioneering French New Wave filmmaker, dies at 90

Agnès Varda, the Belgian-born filmmaker central to the French New Wave, died on 29 March 2019 from cancer complications at her home. Tributes flowed over the weekend, with French Culture Minister Franck Riester calling her 'one of the greatest artists of our time' in a tweet. Her 1955 debut La Pointe Courte, made on a tiny budget through a co-op she founded, pioneered the movement with its blend of high realism and innovative editing. Varda gained international acclaim for Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), a film exploring art, death, and women's representation in French society with her signature wit. Though she produced features infrequently, including One Sings, One Doesn't (1977) and Vagabond (1985), much of her reputation rests on documentaries like The Gleaners and I (2002), often considered cinematic essays. Her marginalization from the film canon, partly due to her non-traditional forms and status as a woman in a male-dominated industry, gave way to broader recognition later in life. In 2017, she became the first woman to receive an honorary Oscar, followed by a 2018 nomination for best documentary feature for Faces Places, a journey through the French countryside with artist JR. Her final film, Varda by Agnes, premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 2019.