Sentimental Value – the talk of Nordic cinema
By Anders Lorenzen
Director Joachim Trier, and actors Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas and Elle Fanning at a Q&A for Sentimental Value. Photo: Colleen Sturtevant , CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia
This month, we focus on the talk of Nordic cinema right now, the Norwegian film Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi). Directed by one of the rising stars of Nordic Cinema, Norwegian/Danish filmmaker Joachim Trier, the film promises to run away with all the headlines in 2026.
Following the sisters Nora and Agnes in their reunion with their estranged father Gustav, the film features an international and Nordic A-list cast, including the internationally renowned Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård and the American actor Elle Fanning.
Sentimental Value has already picked up a host of accolades and nominations. It took home the Grand Prize of the Festival at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, received six nominations in the Critics’ Choice Awards, and an astonishing eight at the Golden Globes, where Stellan Skarsgård won Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role. Moreover, it’s one of 15 films shortlisted in the Best International Film category in the Academy Awards – the only film from the Nordic countries still in the running. The shortlist will be narrowed down to five films this month, which will be the official nomination selection ahead of the March awards ceremony. At the time of writing, Sentimental Value has scooped 37 wins and 235 nominations.
Trier, who has a Danish father and a Norwegian mother, was born in Denmark and raised in Norway. He received his cinematic education in Denmark first, then in the UK. He likely got his cinematic inspiration from his father, Jakob Trier, who was a sound technician and his grandfather Erik Løchen, a well-known Norwegian filmmaker and artist at the time.
Already in 2006, Trier’s debut feature film, Reprise, won him rave reviews and international recognition and in 2007, Variety named him one of 10 Directors to Watch. He’s no stranger to the Academy Awards either. In 2021, he was nominated for best screenplay for his fifth feature film, The Worst Person in the World (Verdens verste menneske).
If you haven’t yet had the pleasure of watching his work, what better time to do so than a cold February day.
Anders Lorenzen is a Danish blogger and film and TV enthusiast living in London.
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