The Academy Award-winning filmmaker of “Searching For Sugar Man,” Malik Bendjelloul, was found dead today in Stockholm, according to police reports. Bendjelloul, 36, won the Academy for Best Documentary last year for the film, about his search for the musician Sixto Diaz Rodriguez. Bendjelloul directed, produced, edited and co-wrote the film, which initially premiered at Sundance in 2012 where it won the Audience Award. The film, which was the director’s first, also won awards for Best Documentary from the DGA, PGA, WGA, BAFTA, NBR and other festivals.
In his review of the film at Sundance, Eric Kohn wrote, “The director makes a convincing case for Rodriguez as a phantom rock
star, no less valid in its iconoclastic value than Bob Dylan, but never
validated by the marketplace.”
At the time, Indiewire interviewed the director, who said, “I don’t think ‘Sugar Man’ is a music doc anymore than ‘The Social
Network’ is about computers. This film just happens to have the best
soundtrack ever.”
Bendjelloul recently told The New York Times about how anonymous the musician was before the film first screened at Sundance. “Many people didn’t know when the film started who he was at all. They even thought that he was dead for the first half-hour. So
seeing him in the flesh an hour later was powerful. That’s what you can
do with documentaries.”
Police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik said the Swedish filmmaker died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but didn’t specify the cause of death except to say there was no crime suspected, according to the Associated Press.
Update: Malik Bendjelloul committed suicide.
READ MORE: The Film Industry Mourns Malik Benjelloul
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