Ryūsuke Hamaguchi has made some of his most powerful films out of seemingly simple encounters, and All of a Sudden looks ready to hit that emotional nerve again. NEON has unveiled the official U.S. trailer for the Drive My Car filmmaker’s latest, following two women brought together by illness, ageing and an unexpected friendship that begins to change how they see their lives. Watch the trailer above and get the details below.
Two Women Meet at a Turning Point
At the centre of All of a Sudden is Marie-Lou Fontaine (Virginie Efira, Benedetta), the director of an elderly care facility outside Paris. She is attempting to introduce Humanitude, an approach to care built around communication, empathy and preserving the dignity of residents, including those living with dementia. That increasingly puts her at odds with staff, financial pressures and a system that does not always make compassionate care easy.
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Then she meets Mari Morisaki (Tao Okamoto, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), a Japanese theatre director living with terminal cancer. Marie-Lou is initially drawn to Mari’s work, but the relationship soon becomes something far more personal.
The trailer moves through Paris streets and intimate moments between the pair as questions of illness, mortality and how much control we really have over our lives begin to surface. It’s familiar territory for Hamaguchi, whose films often find enormous emotional weight in small shifts between people. Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Evil Does Not Exist all showed just how much he can wring from observation, silence and people gradually revealing themselves.
The French-Japanese-German-Belgian co-production also stars Kyōzō Nagatsuka, Kodai Kurosaki, Jean-Charles Clichet, Marie Bunel, Romain Cottard and Marie Denarnaud.
The Film Was Inspired by a Real-Life Correspondence
Hamaguchi co-wrote the screenplay with Léa Le Dimna, loosely adapting the 2019 non-fiction book When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher Living with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist.
The book collected letters between philosopher Makiko Miyano, who was living with metastatic breast cancer, and medical anthropologist Maho Isono. Their correspondence became an intensely personal exploration of illness, death and what happens when the future suddenly becomes much more fragile.
As detailed by the Festival de Cannes, production spent an extended period at an actual care facility in the Paris suburbs. Residents remained part of the everyday environment during filming, with some appearing as extras and others simply watching the production unfold around them.
Both Leads Shared Cannes’ Best Actress Honour
The film arrived at Cannes in May and left with one of the festival’s biggest acting honours. Efira, whose credits include Benedetta and Other People’s Children, and Okamoto, known internationally for films including The Wolverine, jointly received the festival’s Best Performance for an Actress award. Deadline also reported that the Cannes premiere was greeted with an 11-minute standing ovation.
The strong reception has continued beyond the festival. As of publication, All of a Sudden holds a 97% score on Rotten Tomatoes from 38 reviews. Much of the praise has centred on Efira and Okamoto, as well as Hamaguchi’s willingness to let the film sit with difficult ideas rather than rush towards easy emotional payoffs.
And Yes, It’s More Than Three Hours Long
Anyone who remembers settling in for the 179-minute Drive My Car may want to plan accordingly. All of a Sudden runs for 196 minutes, or three hours and 16 minutes. For Hamaguchi, though, taking his time is hardly unusual.
Japan Has Put It Forward for the Oscars
Cannes may only be the beginning of the film’s awards run. Japan has officially selected All of a Sudden as its submission for Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Academy Awards. It still needs to make the Academy’s shortlist and ultimately earn a nomination, but Hamaguchi already knows this road very well.
His 2021 drama Drive My Car earned four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won Best International Feature Film at the 2022 ceremony. That film was also a major Cannes success, with Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe winning Best Screenplay.
When Is All of a Sudden Released?
NEON will release All of a Sudden in select U.S. cinemas on November 25, 2026.
Its festival run continues before then, including appearances at the Toronto International Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. The film also screened at the Sydney Film Festival in June.
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