Norway has selected Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value as its entry to the best international feature film award at the 2026 Academy Awards.
The film was selected from a shortlist of three by the eight-person Norwegian Oscar Committee, ahead of Dag Johan Haugerud’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dreams and documentary Facing War.
“We have chosen a film that not only impressed us but also profoundly moved us,” said a statement from the committee, which is chaired by Kjersti Mo, CEO of the Norwegian Film Institute.
“What we are seeing is a director with the playful confidence to borrow from the great artists of film history, while always maintaining and developing his own voice, and using it to explore the many nuances of human relationships, here in particular a complex father–daughter relationship.”
Sentimental Value debuted in Competition at Cannes this year, winning the Grand Prix. The film is produced by Maria Ekerhovd for Mer Film and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar for Eye Eye Pictures, and based on a screenplay by Trier and longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt.
The film follows two sisters who reunite with their estranged father, a once-renowned director who offers one of the sisters a role in what he hopes will be his comeback film.
Renate Reinsve, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning lead the cast.
MK2 handles international sales; Nordisk Film Distribution will release the film in Norway on September 12.
Trier’s previous feature The Worst Person In The World was nominated for the best international feature Oscar in 2022.