French screen icon Emmanuelle Riva dies at 89

LONDON: Emmaunelle Riva, the French actor whose 60 year career came to a triumphant climax with her Oscar nomination for Michael Haneke's "Amour", has died. She was 89.

Riva, who had cancer, died on Friday night in Paris, but was working until last summer, when she made a film, "Alma", in Iceland and performed at the Villa Medici in Rome, reported Guardian.

The actress won a BAFTA and a Cesar award for "Amour", which portrayed the love story of an older couple, and France's Academie des Arts et Techniques du Cinema paid tribute to the star following her death.

The Academie said in a statement, "We will all always have the image in our hearts of the immense joy to see her ascend the stage at the Theatre du Châtelet in 2013 and receive the Best Actress Cesar... A great and sublime actress has left us."

After her death, French President Francois Hollande praised the actress' contribution to French culture, saying that she "deeply marked French cinema and created intense emotion in all the roles she played."

Last year she shot the movie "Alma", which is still in post-production, in Iceland and it will be the final film to feature the actress.

Emmanuelle never married and had no children.