Émilie Dequenne

Émilie Dequenne (; 29 August 1981 – 16 March 2025) was a Belgian actress. She first gained recognition for her role in the Dardenne brothers' film Rosetta, which earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. The film also won the Palme d'Or at the festival.

Over her career, she appeared in a variety of films, including the period action horror Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001), the drama The Girl on the Train (2009), the psychological drama Our Children (2012), and the drama Love Affair(s) (2020), the latter for which she won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Career Dequenne was born in Beloeil in 1981 and her parents were Brigitte and Daniel. When she was twelve she began to attend the Académie de Musique et des Arts de la Parole in Saint-Ghislain.

Her breakthrough role in Rosetta established her as a notable talent in European cinema. She continued to work in both mainstream and independent films, such as Christophe Gans's Brotherhood of the Wolf, which achieved significant commercial success, and Joachim Lafosse's Our Children, for which she won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. She also received the Magritte Award for Best Actress and a Satellite Award nomination for her performance in the film.

Other notable films in her career include The Light (2004), the horror film The Pack (2010), the romantic comedy Not My Type (2014), and the drama This Is Our Land (2017).

Personal life and death Dequenne had a daughter, Milla Savarese (b. 2002), with her partner, Belgian DJ Alexandre Savarese. The two were together from 1999 to 2005. In 2008, she met actor , whom she would marry in 2014.

She died at the Gustave-Roussy Hospital in Villejuif, France, on 16 March 2025, after being diagnosed with adrenocortical carcinoma. She was 43.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Theater

Year Title Author Director 2003 Lysistrata Aristophanes Natacha Gerritsen 2006 Miss Julie August Strindberg Didier Long 2010 Mon Tibet Michel Lengliney Didier Long (2)