Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve’s new film Sentimental Value has moved from Cannes breakout to awards-season fixture, turning a family drama about an aging director and his estranged daughters into one of the year’s most closely watched international releases. The Norwegian comedy-drama won the Grand Prix at Cannes in May, later became Norway’s choice for the international feature Oscar, and now leads the European Film Awards race with nominations for film, director, screenplay and acting for both Stellan Skarsgård and Reinsve.
Set largely inside a family house in Oslo, the film follows Gustav Borg, a once-celebrated filmmaker who returns home after decades away and tries to repair his relationship with daughters Nora and Agnes. Gustav announces a comeback film that draws directly on their family history and offers the lead to Nora, a stage actor plagued by severe stage fright. When she declines, he hands the part to rising American star Rachel Kemp, a decision that exposes old resentments and pulls an outsider into fragile dynamics between father, sisters and grandson.
Trier co-wrote the script with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt and has said he poured his own fears about fatherhood and creative selfishness into Gustav. In interviews he describes the film as an attempt to trade irony for emotional directness, summing up his current stance with the phrase “tenderness is the new punk.” He links that shift to getting older, raising a child and wanting to show men on screen who handle vulnerability without a protective layer of cool detachment.
Reinsve, playing Nora, extends her collaboration with Trier after The Worst Person in the World and has spoken about building a portrait of an actor whose talent clashes with a deep fear of exposure. She worked closely with Skarsgård to find a rhythm where affection, rage and disappointment can sit in the same scene, and credits Trier with creating enough trust for her to play long, emotionally draining takes. Her performance has become a focal point of awards coverage, joined by praise for Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as practical, tightly wound younger sister Agnes.
Sentimental Value premiered to a lengthy standing ovation on the Croisette and has since rolled through major fall festivals before opening in North America via Neon in early November, with a U.K. release set for late December and distribution across Europe through local partners. Critics have singled out Trier’s control of tone and his interest in how artists mine private wounds, while some reviews argue the script lets Gustav off the hook too easily. That split has fed a wider conversation about where art ends and exploitation begins, a question Trier keeps open by letting each family member claim their own version of the past.
