Cantet was best known outside France for his film Entre les Murs (The Class), which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival in 2008.
Laurent Cantet, the award-winning film-maker whose creations tackled some of the most complex issues of modern French society, including meritocracy, the education system, diversity and class struggle, has died aged 63 after an illness.
Cantet had been working on a new film, The Apprentice, which had been set for release next year.
The film was praised by the then president Nicolas Sarkozy, who said it depicted the difficulty of the French education system as well as the valiant efforts of teachers.