‘Sentimental Value’: Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix winner explores an emotionally fractured family

NEON has released the official trailer for Sentimental Value, the latest feature film by lauded Danish-Norwegian director Joachim Trier. Debuting at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this May, the movie took home the Grand Prix, one of the festival’s most coveted prizes—second only to the Palme d’Or—amid a 19-minute-long standing ovation.

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This August, audiences worldwide will be able to capture their first glimpse of a film which critics consider to be one of the best released this year. Trier seems to immerse himself in emotional territory once again, with intimate, emotionally fraught relationships tested by time, unspoken feelings, and trauma gradually aggregated over time.

The trailer opens quietly, unassuming, as we are introduced to Nora Borg (Renate Reinsve), a stage actress, in conversation with Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), a Hollywood actress. “I can’t work with him…. My father is a very difficult person”, Nora says, setting the stage for an emotionally gripping, passion-soaked masterpiece. The trailer follows the story of a father and daughter separated by grudges that have grown rancid over time, while they learn to move past and fix generational regret. Once a celebrated filmmaker but has since fallen into anonymity, Gustav Borg (Stellan Skarsgård) attempts to restore his reputation by directing one final autobiographical film. He approaches his daughter in hopes that she would accept his offer to play the lead in it, which she promptly refuses, reminding him of a lifetime of unresolved pain that he inflicted on her by abandoning the family years ago. This forces him to recruit the American actress Rachel, an opportunity he seizes to revive his artistic legacy as well as the deeply fractured relationships with his daughters.

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Trier has long been acclaimed for his beautiful cinematography, Sentimental Value benefitting from the magnificence of Oslo and its surrounding countryside. The film grounds itself in the Scandinavian landscape, which mirrors the development of the characters, the prospect losing its initial wintry mutedness as the film progresses. This tactile sense of place, which has been used admirably as emotional architecture, tells a story of its own—cold and untouchable—which grows warmer and more intimate throughout the movie.

The film also features Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, who plays Agnes Borg, in her breakout role. Other members of the cast include Cory Michael Smith, Catherine Cohen, and Anders Danielsen Lie.

Sentimental Value will be released in France on August 20, while the release in the United States is slated to be on November 7. In April 2025, Mubi announced that they had bought the distribution rights to the film for India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America, and Turkey.

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