Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who’s film Taste of Cherry (1997) won the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, has died at the age of 76.

Kiarostami’s house of cinema confirmed news agency Isna’s report. The agency said Kiarostami died of gastrointestinal cancer in Paris after being diagnosed in March.

The filmmaker remained in Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, staying to make over 40 films, including documentaries, which honestly examined various aspects of Iranian life. He took home the top prize at Cannes for his 1997 film Taste of Cherry, which traces the life of a man looking for someone to bury him after his suicide. The film fearlessly took on societal attitudes and the nuances of religion within Islam at the time.

In 2005, Kiarostami partnered with Brit Ken Loach, who recently won the Palme d’Or for I, Daniel Blake, and Italian director Ermanno Olmo for Tickets, a three-part film.

Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi told the Guardian he was “very sad, in total shock” following the news of the death of his friend, who he was soon meant to visit.

“He definitely paved ways for others and influenced a great deal of people. It’s not just the world of cinema that has lost a great man; the whole world has lost someone really great,” said Farhadi.

After viewing Kiarostami’s semi-fictional documentary about a deadly earthquake in 1990, Life, and Nothing More..., Jean-Luc Godard said: “Film begins with DW Griffith and ends with Abbas Kiarostami.”

The filmmaker, who battled censorship in his homeland for his society-challenging works, has been mourned by the wider film industry, with hundreds of online tributes.