Sentimental Value
2025 Norwegian drama film by Joachim Trier
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Sentimental Value (Norwegian: Affeksjonsverdi) is a 2025 drama film directed by Joachim Trier, who co-wrote it with Eskil Vogt. It follows sisters Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) in their reunion with their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). It also stars Elle Fanning.
- Eskil Vogt
- Joachim Trier
- Maria Ekerhovd
- Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
| Sentimental Value | |
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| Norwegian | Affeksjonsverdi |
| Directed by | Joachim Trier |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Kasper Tuxen |
| Edited by | Olivier Bugge Coutté |
| Music by | Hania Rani |
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Running time | 133 minutes[2] |
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| Budget | $7.8 million |
| Box office | $22 million[3][4] |
The film premiered in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May, where it received widespread critical acclaim and won the Grand Prix.[5][6] It was theatrically released in Norway on 12 September by Nordisk Film.
At the 83rd Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, and won Best Supporting Actor for Skarsgård. At the 98th Academy Awards,[7] it received nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Reinsve), Best Supporting Actor (Skarsgård) and two Best Supporting Actress nominations (Fanning and Lilleaas).
Plot
After film director Gustav Borg and psychotherapist Sissel Borg end their troubled marriage, Gustav uses the divorce as an excuse to leave Norway and focus on his career. Sissel continues to raise their daughters Nora and Agnes in their Oslo home, which Gustav's family has owned for generations. In adulthood, Agnes works as a historian and is married, and has a son. Nora becomes a fairly successful stage actress, although she suffers from debilitating bouts of stage fright; additionally, she is having an affair with her married colleague Jakob.
After Sissel dies, Gustav returns to Norway to reclaim the house. His daughters have grown to resent him for his extended absences and his drinking problem, although Agnes is more sympathetic to him. He tries to reconcile with his daughters, but their conversations are frequently derailed by his microaggressions and lack of emotional intelligence. He has a better relationship with Agnes's young son Erik but mainly connects with him through movies.
Gustav's career is on the decline, as he struggles to get financing for his projects. His latest script is seemingly inspired by his mother Karin, a member of the Norwegian resistance movement who was tortured during the Nazi occupation and eventually committed suicide in the family home when Gustav was seven years old. Gustav proposes filming the movie in the actual home and hopes to recreate the suicide in the climactic scene. He asks Nora to play Karin, but Nora refuses to even read the script.
After encountering American actress Rachel Kemp at the Deauville American Film Festival, he offers the role of Karin to her. The inclusion of Kemp's star power in the project convinces Netflix to finance the project. The production grows troubled as Gustav openly resents working with Netflix. When he makes a visit to his longtime cinematographer, Peter, to ask for his collaboration on the film, Gustav is shocked at Peter's frailty and poor health. Rachel, who is unable to speak Norwegian, grows increasingly self-conscious about the fact that Gustav had to translate the script into English for her. Nora is put off by the fact that Gustav treats Rachel with more empathy than his own daughters.
Jakob divorces his wife but refuses to commit to Nora. Gustav infuriates Nora by suggesting that her internal rage prevents her from finding love. Nora subsequently loses interest in her work. Agnes is furious when Gustav casts Erik in the movie without her permission, bitterly remarking that Gustav previously casting her in a movie did not compensate for his general failures as a father. Rachel, realizing that the role is not right for her and that Gustav's first choice for the role remains Nora, exits the production. That evening, Gustav goes outside and drunkenly puts up a middle finger at the house (or more generally at the sky) before collapsing and being hospitalized.
To understand her father better, Agnes visits the National Archives of Norway to read her grandmother's statement to the post-war government about her torture, which she otherwise refused to discuss with anyone. Sensing that Karin passed on her generational trauma to Gustav, Agnes reads Gustav's script. She realizes that while the film's plot is inspired by Karin, its emotional arc reflects his sincere regrets about his broken relationship with Nora. Agnes is particularly struck by the final scene -- it is revealed that Nora's own suicide attempt, which she never shared with Gustav, is depicted with striking similarity within the script. Agnes pushes Nora to read the script, which she finally does. Moved by a sense of understanding between herself and her father, Nora finally agrees to join the film.
Gustav finds the money to finance the film by selling the family home, which is shown with new furnishings in a more modern style. Sometime later, production moves forward, with the filming taking place on a sound stage that has been adjusted to look like the familial Borg home. Nora performs the climactic scene with Erik acting as her son. After the final take, she exchanges a wordless, understanding look with her father.
Cast
- Renate Reinsve as Nora Borg,[8] an actress from Oslo
- Stellan Skarsgård as Gustav Borg, a celebrated film director and Nora and Agnes's father
- Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas as Agnes Borg Pettersen, Nora's sister
- Elle Fanning as Rachel Kemp, a famous American actress hired to play the lead in Gustav's new film
- Anders Danielsen Lie as Jakob, Nora's theater colleague and romantic interest
- Jesper Christensen as Michael, Gustav's producer
- Lena Endre as Ingrid Berger
- Cory Michael Smith as Sam, Rachel's colleague
- Catherine Cohen as Nicky, Rachel's colleague
- Andreas Stoltenberg Granerud as Even Pettersen, Agnes's husband
- Øyvind Hesjedal Loven as Erik, Agnes and Even's son
- Lars Väringer as Peter, Gustav's retired cinematographer
- Ida Marianne Vassbotn Klasson as Sissel Borg, Gustav's ex-wife and Nora and Agnes's mother
Production
Principal photography commenced in August 2024 in Oslo, shooting for 63 days until late November.[9][10][11][12] Key scenes depicting Skarsgård, Fanning and Cory Michael Smith's characters attending the Deauville American Film Festival were shot on location in Deauville, France.[12]
Danish cinematographer Kasper Tuxen mainly shot the production in 35mm, with flashback scenes set in the 1920s and 1930s shot in 16mm.[12] This film marks Tuxen's second collaboration with Trier, following The Worst Person in the World (2021).
Music
Release
On 10 April 2025, Sentimental Value was announced to be competing for the Palme d'Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 21 May 2025 and received a 19-minute standing ovation.[13][14][15] The film's trailer was released on 1 July.[16]
Neon bought the distribution rights for North America in May 2024 at the Cannes Film Festival when the film was first announced.[17] In April 2025, Mubi announced that they had acquired rights to the film for the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, Turkey and India.[18] It was also screened in Open Air Premiere Programme at the 31st Sarajevo Film Festival in August 2025.[19] It was released in France on 20 August 2025 by Memento.[20] It was released in the United States on 7 November 2025 by Neon.[21] It was released in Spain on 5 December 2025 by Elastica,[22] and in the United Kingdom on 26 December by Mubi.[23]
Reception
Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 213 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "Deftly exploring the uneasy tension between artistic expression and personal connection, Sentimental Value is a bracingly mature work from writer-director Joachim Trier that's marvelously acted across the board."[24] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[25]
In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 21 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)".[26]
Year-end lists
According to CriticsTop10.com, Sentimental Value appeared on 89 critics' annual "best-of" lists in 2025 .[27]
- 3rd – David Ehrlich (IndieWire)[28]
- 3rd – Owen Gleiberman (Variety)[29]
- 3rd – Ann Hornaday (The Washington Post)[30]
- 4th – Lindsey Bahr (AP News)[31]
- 4th – Jack Coyle (AP News)[31]
- 4th – IndieWire Critics Poll[32]
- 6th – The Hollywood Reporter[33]
- 6th – Peter Travers (The Travers Take)[34]
- 7th – Sheri Linden (The Hollywood Reporter)[33]
- 8th – Nicholas Barber and Caryn James (BBC)[35]
- 8th – Nick Chen (Dazed)[36]
- 10th – David Fear (Rolling Stone)[37]
- Listed alphabetically, not ranked – Chris Murphy (Vanity Fair)[38]
- Listed alphabetically, not ranked – Dana Stevens (Slate)[39]
