'Dallas Buyers Club' director Jean-Marc Vallée dead at 58

Canadian PM Trudeau expresses his condolences after filmmaker's death near Quebec City

Jean-Marc Vallée at the premiere of the HBO television series 'Big Little Lies' in Los Angeles in 2017. Reuters

Jean-Marc Vallée, a Canadian best known for directing the Oscar-nominated film Dallas Buyers Club and Emmy-winning HBO series Big Little Lies, has died at his cabin outside Quebec City. He was 58.

Vallée's demise was confirmed on Twitter by his representative, Bumble Ward. A cause of death was not immediately announced.

“Still in shock over the news that Jean-Marc Vallée has died,” Ms Ward said, and added that he was thoughtful and kind “while still being a creative genius".

The filmmaker's Hollywood breakthrough came with the 2013 Aids drama Dallas Buyers Club, which won Oscars for actors Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.

The movie was based on the true story of homophobic drug addict Ron Woodroof, played by McConaughey, who smuggles much-needed but unapproved medication into the US to distribute to other Aids patients.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted that “Jean-Marc Vallée’s passion for filmmaking and storytelling was unmatched — so, too, was his talent. Through his work and with his art, he left a mark in Quebec, across Canada and around the world.”

Vallée's recent win as a director came from HBO series Big Little Lies starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Zoe Kravitz. The show won eight Emmy awards in 2017.

He also directed Demolition, a 2015 drama starring Jake Gyllenhaal, about a New York investment banker coming to grips with his wife's sudden death.

The director had called Demolition his most “rock and roll” film, both for its pulsing soundtrack in a film otherwise punctuated by silence and its often provocative and offbeat portrayal of grief.

Vallée was acclaimed for his naturalistic approach to filmmaking, often shooting with natural light and hand-held cameras, giving actors freedom to improvise from the script and move around within a scene’s location.

The crew roamed up and down the Pacific Coast Trail to shoot Witherspoon in 2014’s Wild.

The filmmaker, who came from Montreal, forayed into the features film industry with his 1995 thriller Black List. He is survived by two sons.