UK director Mike Leigh has expressed his concerns about young filmmakers in the UK not receiving the same creative freedom and control he had when he began his career.
“I’m very concerned for young filmmakers,” Leigh told Screen at the premiere of his latest film Tender Loving Care, which screened at the BFI London Film Festival on October 15.
“I’m concerned about them having the same backing and the freedom to explore and make the films they want to make in every particular detail,” he continued. “Not to be dictated to and not to be hanging round for years and years while people are bullying them about casting and the script.”
Leigh, who has been making independent films for over 50 years, said he believed the problem is only getting worse and that funders need to hand back more control to the creatives.
“Filmmakers should have the same freedom as painters and novelists and dramatists and poets and musicians to explore and create without interference,” the director stressed.
“There are plenty of people with money, but they are inhibited by relinquishing control over the material.”
Tender Loving Care won the best film award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in September.
It follows two friends who work in social care and stars Kate O’Flynn, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson and Alice Bailey Johnson.
On whether this is to be his last film, Leigh said: “I’d love to make more films, but I have a medical condition. I’m a bit disabled, and it’s getting worse.”
The director suffers from myositis, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic muscle inflammation and weakness. He continued: “That’s all it is. It’s not a poetic or artistic affectation of some kind or a sense of doom and gloom; it’s just a fact.”
Leigh’s long-term producing partner Georgina Lowe said she hoped more audiences would watch Tender Loving Care in cinemas after a “slightly disappointing” box office for 2024’s Hard Truths, which made just shy of £900,000 in the UK and Ireland.
“I don’t think as many people went to the cinema as we would have hoped,” Lowe said. “It seems like cinema audiences are increasing again so hopefully more people will start watching indigenous films again and not just the Hollywood blockbusters.”
The BFI London Film Festival continues until October 18.
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