How a win for the delicate Sentimental Value would bring something totally fresh to the Oscars' 2026 best picture race

"But we didn't have the same childhood. I had you.”

Spoken by Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas’s Agnes in Sentimental Value, these 10 words are some of the most affecting in any film from 2025.

It's a line that encapsulates the reason that the film has been nominated for nine awards in this year’s Oscars race – one that perfectly and poignantly captures the antithetical yet remarkable relationship between sisters. Renate Reinsve’s Nora, brown-eyed and teary, cradles the gentle form of the younger sister she has spent a lifetime loving, attempting to compensate for the affection withheld by their father and wondering why Agnes didn’t end up as fractured as she did. It’s a seismic moment – and one that any viewer of the 133-minute feature would cite as a standout. That scene alone feels worthy of an award.

Of all the films nominated for best picture this year, it’s clear that Sentimental Value possesses the most heart – and for that reason, it deserves to win.

Following his acclaimed drama The Worst Person in the World (arguably a 2022 best picture snub itself), Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier has returned with an even more assured character study in the form of Sentimental Value, once again centred on a performance by the astonishing Renate Reinsve.

This time, she’s Nora Borg – a 30-something theatre actress whose adult identity has been painfully marred by her relationship with her estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), an acclaimed film director. When Gustav offers Nora a part in his new film, her historic resentment of him begins to resurface. What soon unfolds is a story of love, change and the limits of forgiveness, complicated further when American actress Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning) is instead cast in the film as the character based on Gustav’s deceased mother, Karin.

Films about family have always been integral to the Oscars. From Kramer vs Kramer to Little Women to Little Miss Sunshine and beyond, the family unit is a structure that both the Academy and audiences have been drawn to for decades – likely because of how intimate and relatable its intricacies can be. Sentimental Value slots itself within this genre at the highest tier. Its exploration of sisterhood, of the trauma suffered by the oldest daughter within a dysfunctional family system, is not only deeply realistic and profoundly poignant, but acutely confronting for much of the film’s audience. How eloquently the film manages to capture such a specific yet overlooked window of real life is more than enough reason for a win.

The immaculate performances of its leading ladies also make Sentimental Value so emotionally penetrating. Nora's complexities, Agnes's delicacy and Rachel's sensitivity are all exceptional – with all three actresses so well aligned to their roles that it's almost uncanny. It’s simply no wonder that as well as best picture and a slew of other nominations, all three of the women also received nods for their turns in the film. Skarsgård is also bold in his portrayal of emotionally unintelligent Gustav – at times completely infuriating and at others, almost tragic.

The film’s acting feats are only strengthened by its earnest script, rich cinematography and stunning production design. Not a single other of this year’s nominees managed to transform something as regular as a house into a character of its own – yet Sentimental Value somehow finds itself able to do so with a delightful ease. The dark panelled, Dragestil-style wooden structure of the Borg family home is filmed steadily and centrally, yet in a way that is intimate and connecting – skilfully transitioning bricks and mortar into a living, breathing manifestation of familial history – with all the memories of laughter, love and loss that several generations of the Borg family have endured. At times, such presentation even leaves the audience concerned more for the fate of the house than the outcome of its human characters.

A best picture win for Sentimental Value would also make history as only the second ever international film to win the award. In nearly a century of Oscars history, only the 2019 Korean black comedy-thriller Parasite managed to achieve the feat. For Sentimental Value to follow in its footsteps would be a triumph: a resounding signal that non-English language stories, those rooted in culture and family and history, are worthy of recognition on a global scale – not just on a one-off chance.

Sentimental Value may not be as clamorous as Sinners, as incensing as One Battle After Another, or as overtly determined to drain the tears from its audience as Hamnet. It’s not a film that relies on being direct or excessive. What Sentimental Value is, however, is a tender, cinematic study of humanity. Of existence. Of the reasons we become the way we are.

And so, perhaps after several recent years of boisterous best pictures, it’s time for something more delicate to regain a victory.

Sentimental Value is now streaming on MUBI.

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