Nicolas Altmayer and Mathilde Favier die in crash

French film producer Nicolas Altmayer and Dior public relations head Mathilde Favier were killed in a car accident in western France, local authorities said Tuesday.

Nicolas Leclainche, the deputy public prosecutor in Niort in the Deux-Sevres department, said the couple's car collided with an oncoming truck while overtaking another vehicle on Monday afternoon.

Favier, 57, was head of public relations for luxury fashion brand Dior. Altmayer, 61, headed the company Mandarin & Compagnie with his brother Eric.

The Altmayer brothers produced the 1950s-style spy spoof OSS 117 series, the comedy Brice de Nice and Conquest, a thriller based on former French president Nicolas Sarkozy's rise to power. In 2017, the brothers received the Daniel Toscan du Plantier Prize for best French producer of the year, awarded by France's equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Tributes came from entertainment, luxury and politics. Oscar-winning French actor Jean Dujardin, who starred in the OSS 117 films, wrote on social media: “Nicolas, Mathilde, you loved each other, we loved you. Immense sadness and shock.”

France's Culture Minister Catherine Pegard called Altmayer a producer able to bring together popular comedy and auteur ambition, and said Favier represented “fashion and luxury”. Bernard Arnault, chief executive of LVMH, which owns Dior, honoured Favier on Dior's Instagram account.