Mike Leigh says Tender Loving Care may be his last film as Toronto run continues
Mike Leigh has suggested Tender Loving Care may be his last film.
The writer-director said so ahead of the drama's run on the autumn festival circuit, where he has appeared with his cast in Toronto to talk about care, ageing and family. The comment came in an interview published in July, in which he called the film most likely his final movie IndieWire.
Leigh directs and wrote Tender Loving Care, a United Kingdom production from his company Thin Man Films Deadline. He was joined in Toronto by Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O'Flynn and Alice Bailey Johnson for a Deadline Toronto Studio panel published on 18 September Deadline. O'Flynn plays Amy and Johnson plays Rosie.
Asked what the film is about, Leigh pointed to work and home life. He described it as a film about professional and personal care, end of life, growing old, holding onto youth, and love as lovingness Deadline. Short sentences help here. It is a lot to hold.
The festival programme frames it in simpler terms. TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, calls it an uplifting story of family and how to deal with grief, built around remarkably emotional performances TIFF. The Guardian, in its review, called it a drama about friendship and ageing parents, and a tender and elusive study of love and mortality The Guardian.
Tender Loving Care has moved quickly from premiere to premiere. It was selected for the Telluride Film Festival lineup announced in early September Deadline. It then had its Canadian premiere in Toronto. Its first screening took place on Saturday, 12 September at TIFF Lightbox Deadline.
In Toronto it was programmed as a Special Presentations title, the section reserved for high-profile films, and included in the Luminaries series. Listed screenings included 10 September at 8:40 AM in Scotia 13, 12 September at 11:30 AM in Scotia 4, and 18 September at 3:00 PM. After Toronto, the film is due to screen at San Sebastián Deadline.
What makes this stand out is the combination of late-career context and new business. Leigh is a seven-time Oscar nominee Deadline. Bleecker Street, the company handling distribution in the United States, is attached to release Tender Loving Care Deadline. Studiocanal will release the film in the UK Deadline.
Leigh appeared at the Deadline Studio on Day 2 of the 2026 Toronto festival, held at the Bisha Hotel on 12 September Deadline. No release date has been announced in the verified material. For now, the festivals are the shop window.
