Tender Loving Care, the latest feature from British filmmaker Mike Leigh, took three prizes at the 2025 San Sebastián International Film Festival, including the top honor, the Golden Shell.

Lead actress Kate O'Flynn also collected the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance, while Leigh and his collaborators shared the Best Screenplay award. The film had earlier premiered at Telluride before crossing the Atlantic for its European bow.

What does the Golden Shell change in the race?

San Sebastián's top prize places Tender Loving Care firmly in the international awards conversation as the year-end corridor opens. Bleecker Street will release the film in U.S. theaters on December 4, with StudioCanal handling the UK release next year.

The Golden Shell, awarded annually to a single film, carries weight with international voters and Oscars campaigns. The separate Best Screenplay prize, shared by Leigh with collaborators developed over months of improvisation, signals dual recognition of the picture's execution.

O'Flynn's Silver Shell introduces a new contender in the actress race. The British performer now heads into the winter festival window with a major European prize already secured.

How does Leigh's no-script process actually work?

Tender Loving Care follows Amy (O'Flynn), a London social worker who moves in with her best friend Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson) after a breakup. Both women work in social care at opposite ends of the age spectrum, and the story grew, Leigh said, from an initial idea about "positive and care."

O'Flynn, speaking on stage at Deadline's London Contenders event alongside Leigh and co-star Marion Bailey, described the working method.

"It's quite practical," O'Flynn said. "It's very quite simple, really. We're just talking about what our characters would know with Mike, or how they would react. Is that accurate to who they are? You carve out the characters through those explorations."

Leigh confirmed the story's origins: "And as it evolved, we thought about social workers. We see them operating. And we see them in their private lives."

On whether he consciously echoes his earlier work, Leigh was blunt: "I never think about that at all. I try to do something different with every film. And at the same time, any artist may inevitably say the same thing."

The process, by design, produces characters through conversation rather than written pages.

Could this be Leigh's last film?

Leigh has previously said Tender Loving Care may be his final feature project. The veteran director cited mobility problems on set as the reason working has become harder.

"I'm a little disabled these days, so it makes it hard," Leigh said at the London Contenders panel. "But it is possible. I don't know."

That noncommittal framing leaves the door open without committing to retirement. What is locked in is the release window: Tender Loving Care arrives in U.S. theaters December 4 via Bleecker Street, with StudioCanal's UK release to follow in 2026.