Mike Leigh wins Golden Shell at 74th San Sebastián Festival for Tender Loving Care

Festival top honours

British director Mike Leigh won the Golden Shell for Best Film at the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival on 26 September 2026 for his drama Tender Loving Care. Screened on Tuesday in the official competition, the production took three prizes, adding the award for Best Screenplay for Leigh and Best Leading Performance for British actress Kate O'Flynn. O'Flynn shared the acting award ex aequo with Norwegian actress Asta Kamma August for Growth of the Soil. Leigh's victory halted a streak of three consecutive Golden Shell triumphs for Spanish cinema, which included O Corno, Tardes de Soledad, and Los domingos.

Retirement and career milestones

Leigh, aged 83, confirmed that the film represents his farewell to directing because of myositis, an inflammatory condition affecting voluntary muscles that causes muscle loss and impairs mobility. The physical limitations prevented him from attending the festival in northern Spain in person, following promotional screenings in Toronto. Leigh addressed the festival press conference by video link from New York, citing his medical condition as the sole practical reason for ending his film career.

It is more than likely that this will be my last film.

He sent a separate recorded video message from the United States to thank festival organizers for the award.

Greetings from New York, thank you very much for the Golden Shell.

The win caps a career spanning more than five decades, 22 feature films, and roughly 20 stage plays. Leigh previously won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1996 for Secrets & Lies and the Golden Lion at Venice in 2004 for Vera Drake, with his films accumulating 18 Academy Award nominations, including seven for Leigh personally.

Domestic drama and welfare themes

Tender Loving Care centres on Amy, a social worker in public child protection played by O'Flynn, who moves into an apartment with her closest friend, portrayed by Alice Bailey Johnson, after a failed relationship. Amy's ageing parents maintain a close bond with their daughter while suddenly confronting serious illness in their own household. The story combines black humour with family relationships to explore mutual care and community support against the backdrop of deteriorating public welfare services in the United Kingdom. O'Flynn, who won an Emmy Award two weeks earlier for The Curse of Widow's Bay, completed her fourth feature collaboration with Leigh.

Competition jury selections

The official jury, chaired by American filmmaker Ira Sachs, distributed the remaining honours across European and Asian entries. Swedish director Amanda Kernell received the Silver Shell for Best Director for Brace Your Heart. Kernell's third feature film examines a Sami reindeer-herding community where a young woman faces the dilemma of keeping silent about a traumatic event to preserve communal unity, returning to indigenous subjects after her debut film Sami Blood. Hans Petter Moland's period adaptation Growth of the Soil, based on the 1917 novel by Knut Hamsun, secured Best Cinematography for Oskar Dahlsbakken alongside August's acting prize for her depiction of a woman imprisoned after the death of her child. The jury awarded its Jury Prize to the South Korean production Border, while Spanish actor Javier Cámara received the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance under the festival's gender-neutral acting categories.