David Lynch friends and collaborators mark one year since film icon’s death

David Lynch‘s closest collaborators have marked a year since his death with a series of moving social media tributes.

• READ MORE: David Lynch – 1946-2025: a true visionary who reinvented cinema

The beloved late director’s death was announced by his family on social media exactly a year ago yesterday (January 16). Lynch, who is celebrated for seminal films like Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and the iconic TV series Twin Peaks, revealed his emphysema diagnosis last year, and in November, shared that he required supplemental oxygen to walk.

Among the countless celebrities to have paid tribute to Lynch were Laura Dern, Nicolas Cage, Edgar Wright, James Gunn, Hugh Jackman, Billy Corgan, Questlove – you can see more tributes here.

Now, following the first anniversary of Lynch’s death, his friends and peers have reflected on his seismic influence on the film industry, as well as the changes he’d made to their lives.

“One year without you and still moving through the strange and beautiful universe you opened for me, my dear friend,” wrote Kyle Maclachlan, who starred in five of Lynch’s projects, Dune, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me and Twin Peaks: The Return.

“Forever changed, forever grateful, forever your Kale.”

One year ago today, we lost David Lynch.

“No matter what the weather is, I wish for all of you blue skies and golden sunshine internally all along the way.”
pic.twitter.com/uKWid3ldLZ

— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) January 15, 2026

Naomi Watts just shared the most beautiful tribute to David Lynch, one year on pic.twitter.com/2BTyU6VDKG

— David Opie (@DavidOpie) January 16, 2026

A year ago today DAVID LYNCH passed away. One of the most outstanding directors in history, a superlative artist. A unique, extraordinary and timeless cultural figure. Forever in our memory, forever in our hearts. Long live The Greatest. pic.twitter.com/lfU4EwJbr6

— Black Lodge Cult (@BlackLCult) January 16, 2026

Similarly, Naomi Watts (Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks: The Return) wrote of the ways in which Lynch had changed her life, sharing a photo of them on set and sharing: “Your voice, your stories, your laughter—they’re etched into my heart. You changed my life, opened my mind, and left my ears ringing from those joyful bullhorn calls. You knew how to meet darkness with hope, light, and real beauty.

“I miss you, my friend. Wish you were here.”

Karen O shared a picture of his grave, saying that she was dearly “missing David’s earthly presence” and had left a rose, while fellow musician Sky Ferreira said simply: “we love you”.

The frontwoman of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs had collaborated with Lynch on his 2011 album ‘Crazy Clown Time’, while Ferreira appeared in the 2017 Twin Peaks revival series as Ella.

The directors death prompted much discussion around Unrecorded Night, the Netflix series that Lynch was working on prior to his death. The show got as far as location scouting, according to the filmmaker’s regular cinematographer, but was halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Long-time Lynch producer Sabrina Sutherland called the script “the best thing he ever did”. 

Last year, Peter Deming, who worked with him on many projects, revealed it may be released to the public as a book. “I think it was a discussion that began when David started having health problems and whether he would be able to make it” he explained.

In NME’s tribute to the late director, Mark Beaumont wrote that the “very word ‘Lynchian’ – denoting a kind of carnivalesque dark surrealism; sometimes fantastical, sometimes macabre, sometimes dreamlike, often eerily everyday – will forever pay tribute to the work of one of cinema’s finest ever auteurs.”

The post David Lynch friends and collaborators mark one year since film icon’s death appeared first on NME.