All of a Sudden
Japan’s Ryusuke Hamaguchi made a strong impression at Cannes Fest in 2021 with his meditation on grief, regret and human connection, Drive My Car, which went on to receive four Oscar nominations, winning the best international film Oscar.
His French-language debut, All of a Sudden, casts Virginie Efira as the director of a nursing home in the Paris suburbs, who adopts the compassion-based “Humanitude” treatment method with her patients, despite discord among her team members.
Her life changes when she meets a terminally-ill Japanese playwright, played by Tao Okamoto.
The two women develop a spiritual bond as they fight together to overcome systemic constraints and transform the care facility into a symbol of resistance.
The film was loosely inspired by a collection letters written between philosopher Makiko Miyano and medical anthropologist Maho Isono, which were published in the book, “You and I–The Illness Suddenly Get Worse.”
The letters cover Miyano and Isono’s thoughts on life, illness and death as Miyano fought metastatic breast cancer; she lost consciousness shortly after writing the book’s preface, and died 15 days later.
Havin received several offers after the release of the Oscar-winning Drive My Car, Hamaguchi was “deeply moved” by the correspondence between the two women. He developed the project over two years, traveling to France, where he hosted a workshop with French actors to observe their work. In preparation for her role, Efira learned Japanese.
When Hamaguchi decided to transpose the setting to France, he contemplated how he could create a bridge between France and Japan. He settled on a treatment approach called Humanitude, “a French method that was imported in Japan and is now practiced in several venues there, putting the human dimension at the heart of the treatment for the integrity of each human being.”
Principal photography began on June 30, 2025, in Paris and Kyoto, wrapping on Sep 6, 2025. Paris was the primary location–Hamaguchi wanted to show “a Paris that’s a little different from the clichés we might have about the city,” inspired by his time in “places that aren’t touristy.” Frenc Alan Guichaoua served as director of cinematography.
A co-production between France, Japan, Germany and Belgium, the film was produced by the Paris-based company Cinefrance Studios with the Japanese studios Office Shirous and Bitters End, Germany’s Heimatfilm and Belgium’s Tarantula.
Hamaguchi first met producer David Gauquié of Cinefrance at a café in Shibuya in 2022 and discussed French cinema. Hamaguchi considers French cinema to be central to his “vision as a filmmaker,” claiming that he has been “trying desperately to learn French.”
Canadian-French composer Samuel Andreyev composed the film’s original score.
All of a Sudden will have its world premiere at Cannes on May 15. In February 2026, Neon acquired American distribution rights at the European Film Market. It will be theatrically released in Japan by Bitters End on June 19, and in France by Diaphana Distribution on August 12.
