Mike Leigh wins San Sebastián's Golden Shell

by Alfonso Rivera

28/09/2026 - Tender Loving Care has clinched the festival’s top prize, the Best Leading Performance Award for Kate O'Flynn as well as Best Screenplay

Mike Leigh wins San Sebastián's Golden Shell

Tender Loving Care by Mike Leigh has taken home the Golden Shell from the just-concluded 74th edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival as well as the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay, which was penned by the British filmmaker. The feature also picked up the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance for actress Kate O'Flynn, an award shared with Asta Kamma August for her role in Growth of the Soil. Furthermore, this latter work by Hans Petter Moland made off with the Jury Prize for Best Cinematography, thanks to Oskar Dahlsbakken.

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Meanwhile, the Special Jury Prize went to Border by Chinese filmmaker Ah Biao, and the Silver Shell for Best Director was bestowed upon Amanda Kernell, the auteur behind the European co-production Brace Your Heart, while La Rioja-born Javier Cámara was recognised with the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance for 5 More Minutes, after much deliberation by the jury chaired by filmmaker Ira Sachs, who was serving alongside writer-director Genki Kawamura, screenwriter Catherine Paillé, actress and producer Alice Braga, performer Patricia López Arnaiz, actor Bill Skarsgård and producer Mike Goodridge.

Also in the Official Selection, the new SGAE Award for Best Original Score, bestowed upon one of the films competing in it, went to Amine Bouhafa, the composer of the score for Milo, directed by French filmmaker Nicole Garcia.

As for the New Directors section, the Kutxabank-New Directors Award went to Body of Glass, the debut feature by German filmmaker Naëmi Ada. The jury also handed a Special Mention to The World Before, the sophomore feature by South Korea’s Yoon Dan-bi.

The Horizontes Latinos Make & Mark Award and the DAMA Youth Award went to The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer, the first feature by Argentinian director Alessandra Sanguinetti, which had already won the Golden Leopard in the Cineasti del Presente section and the Best First Feature Award at Locarno. The Special Mention in this section went to Flies, with which Mexican helmer Fernando Eimbcke won the WIP Latam Industry Award at San Sebastián in 2025 and which competed at the latest Berlinale.

Elsewhere, the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award went to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun, a title selected for Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, where it bagged the Queer Palm. The Special Mention in this strand was handed to Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion, which had previously earned María Aparicio the top prize of the Giornate degli Autori at the recent Venice Film Festival.

Lastly, it is worth highlighting that the City of Donostia/San Sebastián Audience Award, voted for by viewers of the Perlak section, went to La bola negra by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, the award-winning title set to represent Spain at the upcoming Oscars, which hit national theatres last Friday to a warm reception at the box office. In addition, the Audience Award for Best European Film was bestowed upon NAZA, the documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor about the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza orchestrated by Israel, which recently won the Special Jury Prize at Venice.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Competition

Golden Shell for Best Film
Tender Loving Care – Mike Leigh (UK)

Silver Shell for Best Director
Amanda Kernell – Brace Your Heart (Sweden/Norway/Denmark/Iceland/Bulgaria)

Special Jury Prize
Border – Ah Biao (Hong Kong/USA/South Korea)

Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance (ex aequo)
Kate O’Flynn – Tender Loving Care
Asta Kamma August – Growth of the Soil (Norway/Denmark/Germany)

Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance
Javier Cámara – 5 More Minutes (Spain)

Best Screenplay
Mike Leigh – Tender Loving Care

Best Cinematography
Oskar Dahlsbakken - Growth of the Soil

SGAE Award for Best Original Score
Amine Bouhafa – Milo (France)

New Directors

Kutxabank-New Directors Award
Body of Glass – Naëmi Ada (Germany/France)

Special Mention
The World Before – Yoon Dan-Bi (South Korea/Japan/France)

Horizontes Latinos

Horizontes Latinos Make & Mark Award
The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer – Alessandra Sanguinetti (Argentina/USA)

Special Mention
Flies – Fernando Eimbcke (Mexico/Spain)

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma – Jane Schoenbrun (USA/Canada/UK)

Special Mention
Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion – María Aparicio (Argentina/Spain)

Culinary Zinema

Culinary Zinema Award
Burgundy - Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw (USA)

Nest

Tabakalera Film and Audiovisual Laboratory-Nest Award
Erased From the Map – Maarij Reka (Indonesia) (short film)

Special Mention
Nobody Barks (Nadie ladra) - Júlia Coldwell Serra (Spain) (short film)

Other awards

City of Donostia/San Sebastián Audience Award
La bola negra – Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi (Spain/France)

Audience Award for Best European Film
NAZA - Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor (UK)

Irizar Basque Cinema Award
Txakun Txakür – Elsa Oliarj-Inès (France/Spain)

DAMA Youth Award
The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer - Alessandra Sanguinetti

FIPRESCI Award
In My Father’s Room – Maha Harada (Japan)

Feroz Zinemaldia Award
The Debut – Jesse Eisenberg (USA)

Eusko Label Award
First Prize
Esperanza – Josu Ozaita (Spain) (short film)
Second Prize
Manos – Mikel Urretabizkaia (Spain) (short film)