Veteran British director Mike Leigh's latest feature, Tender Loving Care, premiered at the Telluride Film Festival to praise from Deadline, with speculation that it could be his last film given his age and health. Made in Leigh's characteristic scriptless, workshopped style, the film returns to the gentle, character-driven portraits of ordinary British family life for which the seven-time Oscar nominee is best known, and is described as one of his finest works.

The film stars Kate O'Flynn, new to Leigh's regular ensemble, as Amy, a social worker whose ageing parents Birdie and Geoff (played by Leigh regulars Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson) worry about her stalled love life. Amy shares a flat with fellow social worker Rosie, played by Bailey's real-life daughter Alice Bailey Johnson, and the story weaves together their personal struggles with scenes from their care work with elderly and vulnerable clients. At 83, Leigh trades the harsher tone of his 2024 film Hard Knocks for a more leisurely, plotless approach, focusing on universal themes of ageing, family and the passage of time.