Émilie Dequenne

Émilie Dequenne was a Belgian actress whose career spanned more than two decades, beginning with an extraordinary breakthrough at the age of eighteen. Born on 29 August 1981 in Belœil, Belgium, she grew up in a modest household headed by her parents Brigitte and Daniel, and started formal training at the Académie de Musique et des Arts de la Parole in Saint‑Ghislain when she was twelve, an experience that laid the foundation for her nuanced approach to performance. Her first major role came in the Dardenne brothers’ critically acclaimed film Rosetta (1999), where she portrayed a determined young woman battling poverty; the performance earned her the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress and propelled her onto the international stage, while the film itself captured the Palme d’Or. Following this early triumph, Dequenne demonstrated remarkable versatility, appearing in the period action‑horror Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) directed by Christophe Gans, which brought her to mainstream audiences, and later delivering subtle, emotionally resonant portrayals in independent dramas such as Our Children (2012) by Joachim Lafosse, for which she received the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress at Cannes and a Magritte Award for Best Actress. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s she continued to balance commercial and artistic projects, starring in The Light (2004), the thriller The Pack (2010), the romantic comedy Not My Type (2014), and the politically charged drama This Is Our Land (2017), each time displaying a commitment to complex, often under‑explored characters. In 2020 she earned the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Love Affair(s), underscoring her status as a respected figure in both Belgian and French cinema. On the personal front, she shared a partnership with Belgian DJ Alexandre Savarese from 1999 to 2005, and together they raised a daughter, Milla, born in 2002; in 2014 she married actor Michel Ferracci after meeting him in 2008. Tragically, Dequenne’s life was cut short by adrenocortical carcinoma; she passed away on 16 March 2025 at the Gustave‑Roussy Hospital in Villejuif, France, at the age of 43, leaving behind a legacy of fearless artistry and an indelible impact on European film.