Queen at Sea

SYNOPSIS

Amanda and her stepfather Martin struggle with a moral issue that divides them. Has Amanda’s mother, Leslie, who is experiencing advanced dementia, lost the ability to make critical decisions in her own best interest? If so, who is responsible – a spouse, a child, an institution – for making such a determination? As Amanda and Martin are forced to make increasingly difficult choices, the repercussions spiral out of their control.

DIRECTOR’S
BIOGRAPHY

LANCE HAMMER is a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. He studied Architecture at the University of Southern California. His first film, BALLAST, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival where he won the US Dramatic Directing Award. It also played in competition at the Berlinale. During its festival run BALLAST received multiple best picture and directing awards and four FIPRESCI prizes. It was nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards. Hammer recently shot his second film, QUEEN AT SEA, in London, starring Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay.

Selected Director’s Filmography:

2026 QUEEN AT SEA
2008 BALLAST

COMMENTS OF
THE DIRECTOR

There was a period in my life when accounts of dementia appeared to me with unusual frequency and each seemed to speak to the same stark point: Because someone deep in the throes of the illness can't communicate what they're feeling they must suffer their experience alone. What interested me in this particularly cruel fact is not only how it affects the sufferer but also the caregiver. How does a loving spouse or child, for example, cope with their inability to know the abyss their beloved is experiencing? More importantly, when one can't communicate their own critical needs, and they can't be reliably divined by a caregiver, how can those needs be addressed?

click to read more

Amongst these accounts were cases of ongoing sexual activity in elderly married couples where one of the partners was in significant decline. Because the inherent moral implications were complex and confusing, I found it difficult to take a definitive position on the many questions and contradictions that rushed to mind regarding agency and consent. Does someone who is experiencing the advances of dementia lose the ability to give informed sexual consent to a long-time partner? If so, who is responsible – a spouse, a child, an institution – for making this determination? Is it right to deprive someone of their agency in order to protect them? Can the best intentions of love cause unintentional harm?

What motivated me to write this story was a desire to explore the difficult moral choices being made in the privacy of family homes all around us, every day, almost entirely hidden from view. The more I learned from the real stories I encountered, the more difficult I found it to judge the choices made by the individuals in these complex family dilemmas. I do have opinions, and even judgments, about the actions of the characters in this story. Most importantly, if Martin can't know with certainty that Leslie wants to have sex, something that dementia may rob her of the ability to fully understand, then he should not have sex with her, even if it's she who initiates the act. If there is any possibility of misinterpreting her desires then there is risk of harming her, and any degree of risk is too high. But I've also witnessed how commonly a loving spouse can fail to recognize the moment in the process when their declining partner has lost the cognitive capacity to make such critical decisions because the decline is either too gradual to detect, too difficult to consciously accept, or both. I have also witnessed how difficult it is for a family to determine where the line is between protecting an ailing loved one and depriving them of their agency, and how easy it is to get it wrong. In fact, as in all true dilemmas, it is probably impossible to get it right. I realized there might be value in making a film focused on these uncertainties, one that neither condemns nor redeems the choices its characters make, so that a viewer might feel and sympathize with the agonizing moral dissonances a family experiences when forced to navigate such difficult waters.

Lance Hammer

MAIN CAST

JULIETTE
BINOCHE
as Amanda

click to read more

Juliette Binoche is a Parisian-born actress, artist, dancer, and now director, who received the Academy Award®, BAFTA, European Film Award, Screen Actors Guild Award, and the HFPA Golden Globe for her turn in the 1996 film THE ENGLISH PATIENT.

She was most recently seen in THE RETURN opposite Ralph Fiennes and directed by Uberto Pasolini, as well as in Apple’s limited series THE NEW LOOK, in which she portrays Coco Chanel opposite Ben Mendelsohn. Her recent films also include Claire Denis’ BOTH SIDES OF THE BLADE, HBO Max’s THE STAIRCASE, PARADISE HIGHWAY opposite Morgan Freeman, and THE TASTE OF THINGS opposite Benoît Magimel.

In 2025, Juliette premiered her directorial debut, IN-I IN MOTION. Her upcoming projects include QUEEN AT SEA directed by Lance Hammer.

She holds the unique distinction of being the only woman to win Best Actress honors at all three major European film festivals—the Palme d’Or at Cannes for CERTIFIED COPY (2010); the Volpi Cup and Pasinetti Award at Venice for THREE COLORS: BLUE (1993); and Berlin’s Silver Bear for THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996). She first earned recognition in 1985 for playing a modernized, teenaged Virgin Mary in Jean-Luc Godard’s JE VOUS SALUE, MARIE, and became a bona fide French star that same year with her acclaimed performance in André Téchiné’s RENDEZ-VOUS. Her international breakthrough came with the role of Tereza in Philip Kaufman’s THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING opposite Daniel Day-Lewis.

Among her most prominent film roles are CHOCOLAT (earning her second Academy Award® nomination), PARIS, JE T’AIME, WUTHERING HEIGHTS with Ralph Fiennes, DAN IN REAL LIFE with Steve Carell, CHILDREN OF THE CENTURY, Michael Haneke’s CODE UNKNOWN, and her César-nominated performance in THE WIDOW OF SAINT-PIERRE. She later appeared in Dito Montiel’s THE SON OF NO ONE (2011) opposite Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, and Katie Holmes; David Cronenberg’s COSMOPOLIS (2012) opposite Robert Pattinson; and AN OPEN HEART. In 2013 she earned exceptional reviews for her portrayal of Camille Claudel in Bruno Dumont’s CAMILLE CLAUDEL 1915. Subsequent films include the blockbuster GODZILLA, CLOUDS OF SILS MARIA opposite Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz, and THE 33 with Antonio Banderas.

In 2017 she starred opposite Camille Cottin in LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER and CALL MY AGENT, returned to the big screen in GHOST IN THE SHELL opposite Scarlett Johansson, and appeared in Claire Denis’ Cannes premiere UN BEAU SOLEIL INTÉRIEUR. In the following years she starred in HIGH LIFE (2018) reuniting with Denis and Pattinson, THE TRUTH (2019), LA BONNE ÉPOUSE (2020), and BETWEEN TWO WORLDS (2021).

In addition to her film work, Binoche is an accomplished stage performer. Her theater credits include a 1988 production of Chekhov’s THE SEAGULL at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris; NAKED at the Almeida Theatre in London; a 2012 modernized version of Strindberg’s MISS JULIE at London’s Barbican; dancer Akram Khan’s 2008 dance-drama IN-I at the Royal National Theatre in London; and her Broadway debut in Harold Pinter’s BETRAYAL opposite Liev Schreiber and John Slattery, for which she was nominated for a 2001 Tony® Award for Best Actress. In 2015 she toured Europe and the United States in the title role of Sophokles’s ANTIGONE, directed by Ivo van Hove with a new translation by Anne Carson. The production premiered at Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and was a co-production with the Barbican London in association with Toneelgroep Amsterdam.

TOM
COURTENAY
as Martin

click to read more

Sir Tom Courtenay is a distinguished British actor born in Hull, Yorkshire, in 1937, who rose to prominence during the British New Wave cinema of the 1960s. After training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), he made his breakthrough in »The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner«(1962), establishing himself as one of the most compelling actors of his generation with his naturalistic performances and ability to portray working-class characters with authenticity and depth. His remarkable career spans over six decades across film, television, and theatre, earning him numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Silver Bear for »45 Years« and nominations for two Academy Awards for »Doctor Zhivago« (1965) and »The Dresser« (1983). Known for his collaborations with directors like David Lean, Tony Richardson, John Schlesinger and Joseph Losey and his long association with The Royal Exchange Theatre Company of Manchester where his roles ranged from Norman in the world premiere of The Dresser, to King Lear, Courtenay was knighted in 2001 for his services to cinema and theatre, cementing his status as one of Britain's most respected and enduring actors.

Selective filmography

2015: Unforgotten (TV Series) - Won BAFTA Award

2015: 45 Years- Won Silver Bear for Best Actor at Berlin International Film Festival (shared with Charlotte Rampling for Best Actress)

2008: Little Dorrit (TV Mini Series)

1998: A Rather English Marriage (TV Movie)

1983: The Dresser - Nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor , Won Golden Globe for Best Actor , Nominated for BAFTA Best Actor

1980-1981: The Dresser (Broadway stage) - Nominated for Tony Award

1977: Otherwise Engaged (Broadway stage) - Nominated for Tony Award

1965: Doctor Zhivago - Nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

1964: King & Country - Won Venice Volpi Cup for Best Actor, Nominated for BAFTA

1963: Billy Liar - Won BAFTA for Best Actor

1962: The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - Won BAFTA for Most Promising Newcomer

ANNA
CALDER-MARSHALL
as Leslie

click to read more

Anna Calder-Marshall is an Emmy Award-winning actress with a career spanning over 50 years across stage and screen.

Select credits include:

Film

Queen at Sea (2026) dir. by Lance Hammer

Sweet Sue (2023) dir. Leo Leigh

Us Among the Stones (2019) dir. Dictynaa Hood

Trespass Against Us (2016) dir. Adam Smith

Wuthering Heights (1970) dir. Robert Fuest

Bodies (2022) for Netflix

Strike: Troubled Blood (2022) for BBC

This England (2022) for Sky Atlantic

The Third Day (2020) for HBO Max

Les Misérables (2019) for Amazon Prime Video

Harlots (2018-19) for Hulu

Stage

Uncle Vanya (2020) dir. Ian Rickson for The Royal Court

Lost Without Words (2017) dir. Lee Simpson for the National Theatre

Love (2016) dir. by Alexander Zeldin for the National Theatre

FLORENCE
HUNT
as Sara

click to read more

Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2024, Florence Hunt, is perhaps best known for her role as the youngest Bridgerton daughter, ‘Hyacinth’, in Netflix’s global phenomenon, BRIDGERTON. The hit series was adapted for the screen by Shondaland, from Julia Quinn’s Regency romance novels of the same name. She is set to return to her role in the series’ highly anticipated fourth season, in January 2026.

Upcoming projects include her feature film debut, in Lance Hammer’s QUEEN AT SEA, opposite Juliette Binoche. Florence can currently be seen in MIXTAPE, alongside Jim Sturgess and Teresa Palmer. Previous onscreen roles include CURSED for Netflix. Onstage credits include FORCE MAJEURE at the Donmar Warehouse, where Florence starred as ‘Vera’ opposite Rory Kinnear. Her performance in the production received critical acclaim.

Florence trained at Nottingham Television Workshop.

MAIN
CREW

Writer, Director & Editor: Lance Hammer
Producers: Tristan Goligher, Lance Hammer
Director Of Photography: Adolpho Veloso, ABC AIP
Production Designer: Soraya Gilanni Viljoen
Casting Director: Kahleen Crawford, CDG
Sound Editor: Kent Sparling, MPSE CAS
Hair And Make Up Designer: Nicole Stafford
Costume Designer: Saffron Cullane
Music Supervisor: Connie Farr
Line Producer: Filiz-Theres Erel
Executive Producer: John J. Hammer

TECHNICAL
DETAILS

Original title: Queen at Sea
International title: Queen at Sea
Duration: 121 min
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shot on 35mm
Format: DCP
Sound: 5.1
Year: 2025
Original language: English
Country of production: United Kingdom
Production Companies: The Bureau, Alluvial Film Company

INTERNATIONAL
PRESS

INTERNATIONAL RESCUE PR

Manlin Sterner
manlin@manlin.se

Charles McDonald
charles@charlesmcdonald.co.uk

Page updated

Report abuse