Name: All of a Sudden
Director: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Released: 2026
Duration: 196 min

Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared Best Actress Awards at Cannes for their sterling work in the latest long-form opus from master filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi.

Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira, Parallel Tales, MIFF 2026) runs an aged-care facility on the outskirts of Paris. She’s devoted to her job and her patients, and firmly believes that the elderly should be treated with dignity. It’s tough work, and, like so many of her employees, she’s dealing with burnout. But her spirit is rekindled when she meets Japanese playwright Mari (Tao Okamoto), who’s staging a theatre piece about the history of mental asylums in Italy. As they plunge headlong into all-night conversations about mortality, philosophy and the degradations of capitalism, Mari and Marie-Lou’s new friendship will change both of their lives.

The films of Ryusuke Hamaguchi – often in-depth explorations of human connection fostered by theatre and workshops – operate at a distinctive register and rhythm, and his first film made outside of Japan is no exception. In All of a Sudden, Hamaguchi interrogates the state of elder care, using it to reflect the ways contemporary societies function. His mastery meets its match in leads Efira and Okamoto, who shared the Best Actress award at Cannes for remarkable performances that shift between French and Japanese and work through a complex array of emotions.

“A transcendent film whose power is capable of rekindling one’s hope in humanity … the kind of assured artistic flex that earns its vast runtime and the many thematic tangents it takes because it all convenes so delicately and stirringly in the end.” – The Playlist