A tenderness that won’t let go. From Cannes to the Oscars

The films in the “Tenderness” section are united by their perspective on human beings. Here, tenderness does not mean sentimentality or glossing over conflicts. Rather, it becomes a way of telling stories about characters who could easily be subject to moral judgment. Marine Atlan’s “La Gradiva“, winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prix, turns the camera on a group of teenagers she observes during a school trip. The summery atmosphere gradually gives way to a drama of desire and the need for acceptance. “Unexpected” is a fully realized work by one of the greatest contemporary masters of cinema, Ryūsuke Hamaguchi, in which the encounter between two women gives rise to something far more intriguing than a conversation: a fascination with another human being. In “Flesh and Fuel” Pierre Le Gall uses melodrama to explore love in the hyper-masculine world of truck drivers, while Manuela Martelli, in “The Meltdown” observes a lonely girl trying to find her place in a reality undergoing rapid change. In “There Are No Good Men in This Country” Shahrbanoo Sadat confronts individual desires with imposed social norms, while in Naomi Kawase’s “Illusions of Yakushima” nature, memory, and imagination intertwine with the personal experience of cultural encounters. Lance Hammer’s “Far from the Shore” and Eivind Landsvik’s “Not Too High Expectations” shift their critical gaze to a more intimate realm. The former film confronts the need for care with the right to self-determination, while the latter uses irony to dismantle the narrative of constant growth, success, and artistic productivity.

The 17th Camera Action Festival will take place from October 22 to 25, 2026, in Łódź, and online from October 19 to 21, 2026, on the Think Film platform. This project is made possible thanks to funding from the City of Łódź’s budget. It is co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund – a state-administered special-purpose fund—as well as by the Polish Film Institute and the University of Łódź, the festival’s patron. The “Sound Direction” section is organized in collaboration with the Łódź Film School and the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Poland. Filmweb is a partner of the section. The festival’s main partners are Monopolis, the Łódź Film School, and the Museum of Cinematography. The Camera Action Festival and the “Man in Danger” Media Festival form the “Łódź Film Festival” network.