Venice Reportedly Passed on Mike Leigh's Latest. San Sebastián Gave It Three Prizes.
Variety reports that “Tender Loving Care,” the latest and purportedly final film from veteran British writer-director Mike Leigh, was allegedly turned down for a Competition slot at the Venice Film Festival. It found a different reception in Spain: the film ruled the awards ceremony at San Sebastián, taking three prizes in the main competition, among them the Golden Shell. Festival gatekeeping and festival juries are separate audiences, and here they landed on opposite verdicts about the same film.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
A rejection and a prize haul are two different kinds of judgment: one is a programmer guessing at prestige, the other a jury rewarding what it just watched. The second one is at least made after seeing the film.
Three prizes at one festival is still one festival's judgment. It tells you a jury was enthusiastic, not that the film is good or that Venice was wrong.
Fair — but if this really is his last film, the stakes of that judgment get read differently than they would for a director with a decade of projects ahead.