Main Slate
All of a Sudden
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
U.S. Premiere
Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared the Best Actress prize at Cannes for Academy Award–winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s (Drive My Car, NYFF59) radiant new film about a nursing home director promoting a radical new care program. Japan’s entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards.
- Runtime
- 196 min
- Country
- France/
Japan/ Germany/ Belgium - Language
- French
- Year
- 2026
- More information
- Official film page
Screenings
Academy Award–winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, NYFF59) expands into even more contemplative, emotional territory with his radiant new film. The newly appointed director of an elder care facility in Paris, Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) is promoting a radical new flagship program that prioritizes respect and empathy over profit and aims to treat not just the body but also the mind and soul of patients suffering from dementia and other cognitive disorders. Though she meets some resistance from staff and board, Marie-Lou finds a true kindred spirit in Mari (Tao Okamoto), a theater director from Kyoto with terminal cancer whose latest stage work moves Marie-Lou on a profound level. Bonded by artistry, kindness, and moral clarity, the women (beautifully embodied by Efira and Okamoto, who shared the Best Actress prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival) embark on a friendship that constitutes its own sort of love story, joining forces to bring dignity to the nursing home’s residents and compassion to one another. Like Marie-Lou’s humane philosophy about health care, Hamaguchi’s film demands time and consideration, rewarding the viewer with an almost transcendent faith in humanity to overcome the strictures of our economic and political systems. A NEON release.
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Academy Award–winning director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, NYFF59) expands into even more contemplative, emotional territory with his radiant new film. The newly appointed director of an elder care facility in Paris, Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) is promoting a radical new flagship program that prioritizes respect and empathy over profit and aims to treat not just the body but also the mind and soul of patients suffering from dementia and other cognitive disorders. Though she meets some resistance from staff and board, Marie-Lou finds a true kindred spirit in Mari (Tao Okamoto), a theater director from Kyoto with terminal cancer whose latest stage work moves Marie-Lou on a profound level. Bonded by artistry, kindness, and moral clarity, the women (beautifully embodied by Efira and Okamoto, who shared the Best Actress prize at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival) embark on a friendship that constitutes its own sort of love story, joining forces to bring dignity to the nursing home’s residents and compassion to one another. Like Marie-Lou’s humane philosophy about health care, Hamaguchi’s film demands time and consideration, rewarding the viewer with an almost transcendent faith in humanity to overcome the strictures of our economic and political systems. A NEON release.
Explore more on Film Comment: