At 83 and in poor health, Mike Leigh arrives at the mountain with what he says may be the last film he will make.

Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care receives its world premiere at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival today. The British director, now 83, has described it as what is most likely his final film. Health challenges, he has indicated, are the reason.

The film follows Amy, a devoted social worker who manages her father's early signs of dementia while finding support through her friendship with a colleague. Kate O'Flynn leads as Amy, alongside Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Alice Bailey Johnson, and Bríd Brennan. Cinematography is by Lucy Bristow, who replaced the late Dick Pope, Leigh's collaborator of decades, who died in 2024.

Tender Loving Care runs 107 minutes. Shooting wrapped in London in February 2026. Film4 is among the production companies. StudioCanal distributes internationally; Bleecker Street will release it in the United States on December 4, 2026. After Telluride, the film screens in Special Presentations at TIFF and in the Main Slate at the New York Film Festival.

Leigh has worked in the same key for forty years. Secrets and Lies. Vera Drake. Another Year. Each film arrived as a small, accumulating study of class, care, and the costs of endurance. If Tender Loving Care is the last, it arrives in good company.