The director, who received an Oscar nomination for his prison-set drama Kiss of the Spider Woman, had a career spanning five decades and worked with actors including Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson and Willem Dafoe.
Héctor Babenco, acclaimed Argentine-Brazilian film-maker, has died of a heart attack at the age of 70.
It led to the 1985 hit Kiss of the Spider-Woman, which starred William Hurt and Raul Julia.
It made him the first ever Latin American film-maker to receive a best director nomination at the Oscars.