Mike Leigh's 'Tender Loving Care' Tops San Sebastián Awards — SkimNews
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- Mike Leigh's "Tender Loving Care" won three prizes at San Sebastián including the Golden Shell for Best Film and Best Screenplay, with the source describing it as the veteran British director's "purportedly last" film; the source notes it was "allegedly turned down" for a Venice Competition slot.
- Kate O'Flynn shared the non-gendered Best Lead Performance prize for her role as a London social worker in "Tender Loving Care," dedicating her award to co-stars Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, and Alice Bailey Johnson; the source notes she is "fresh from her Emmy victory for 'Widow's Bay.'"
- Hans Petter Moland's "Growth of the Soil" — recently selected as Norway's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar — also won multiple prizes, with Asta Kamma August sharing Best Lead Performance and Oskar Dahlsbakken winning Best Cinematography.
- Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor's "NAZA," a documentary exposé of Israeli war crimes in Gaza, won the Audience Award for Best European Film after taking the Jury Prize at Venice earlier this month; the source flags this as "the second year in a row" San Sebastián audiences backed a pro-Palestinian title, following "The Voice of Hind Rajab."
- Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi's "La Bola Negra" took the Audience Award for Best Film, one week after winning Toronto's People's Choice Award.
- Naëmi Ada won the New Directors Award for "Body of Glass" and used her acceptance speech to declare "there is no individual liberation without collective liberation" and condemn "the complicity of the German state in the genocide"; Best Lead co-winner Asta Kamma August wore a pro-Palestine pin and declared "free Palestine" onstage.
- High-profile Competition entries including Fatih Akin's "Ghost Song," Pablo Larraín's "My Sad Dead," Fred Cavayé's "Les Misérables" adaptation, and Jesse Eisenberg's "The Debut" left San Sebastián empty-handed, with only five of 17 Competition films taking prizes; the source notes a "slightly disappointing turnout" for Spanish films after three straight years of home-team Golden Shell wins.
Why it matters: Mike Leigh's reportedly final film taking the Golden Shell caps the British director's festival career at San Sebastián, and the audience's second straight pro-Palestinian pick — paired with Naëmi Ada's onstage denunciation of "the complicity of the German state in the genocide" — turns this year's ceremony into a notably political one rather than a purely artistic coronation.
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