‘Searching for Sugar Man’ director dies at 36

No foul play suspected in death of Malik Bendjelloul, who won 2013 Oscar for film on American singer Sixto Rodriguez

By AP 14 May 2014, 4:18 am Edit

Malik Bendjelloul at the 2013 Writers Guild Awards, JW Marriott, Los Angeles, CA. (Photo credit: Malik Bendjelloul image via Shuttershock.)

STOCKHOLM — Malik Bendjelloul, the acclaimed Swedish film director behind the Oscar-winning music documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” has died. He was 36.

Police spokeswoman Pia Glenvik told the Associated Press Bendjelloul died in Stockholm late Tuesday, but wouldn’t specify the cause of death.

She said no crime is suspected in relation to the film maker’s death.

“Searching for Sugar Man,” which detailed the life and career of American singer Sixto Rodriguez, won the Oscar for best documentary in 2013.

The ‘Searching for Sugar Man’ poster

Bendjelloul grew up in central and southern Sweden and acted in Swedish TV-series “Ebba and Didrik” as a child during the 1990s. He studied journalism and media-production at the Linnaeus University of Kalmar in southern Sweden and later worked as a reporter for Swedish public broadcaster SVT.