Last year, Bleecker Street announced a new Mike Leigh film, then untitled, set for a 2026 release and which wrapped production in London this past January.
We now know the film is titled “Tender Loving Care,” and, as is always the case with the filmmaker, there are no plot details available—not even on TIFF’s official website. At least we have a cast: a quartet of previous on-screen collaborators in Marion Bailey (“Mr. Turner”), Paul Jesson (“All or Nothing”), Kate O’Flynn (“Happy-Go-Lucky”), and Alice Bailey Johnson (“Hard Truths”).
A first look image of “Tender Loving Care” has been unveiled, and it’s very Leigh — the usual kitchen sink vibe that has invaded much of his filmography the last four decades.
I can also confirm that “Tender Loving Care” will be one of the few fall movies to hit all four major festivals: Venice, Telluride, Toronto, and New York—a good indication of the film’s potential quality. What’s more interesting is that two other UK filmmakers, Andrew Haigh (“The Long Winter”) and Simon Stone (“Elsinore”), might also be hitting all four festivals.
This acceptance of Leigh is in stark contrast to what happened with his last film. “Hard Truths” was great but was dubiously rejected by Cannes, Venice, and Telluride (Leigh’s words, not mine). Not to mention the four-year journey during which Leigh struggled to raise the money needed to make it.
Following the 2024 passing of Leigh’s legendary cinematographer Dick Pope, with whom he worked on eleven films, the director of photography on “Tender Loving Care” will be Lucy Bristow, who started off as a focus puller on Leigh’s ’80s and ’90s films and went on to serve as his camera operator over the last 20 years.
Leigh is one of the great living filmmakers—Oscar-nominated five times for writing and twice for directing (“Secrets & Lies,” “Vera Drake”)—and, at 83, he refuses to retire. And why should he?
While we’re at it, I’ll list the indisputable Leigh films—the ones I’ve kept thinking about all these years. You have to start with his Palme d’Or-winning “Secrets & Lies” and the indescribable “Naked.” His other career highlights include “Life Is Sweet,” “Another Year,” “Hard Truths,” “Happy-Go-Lucky,” “All or Nothing,” and “Topsy-Turvy.”
His reasoning is simple: Cregger sees himself first and foremost as a writer, and he has little interest in shaping stories around the predetermined “data points” that come with established IP.