The 98th Academy Awards ceremony, held on Sunday (15/3/2026) evening at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, delivered a historic moment for Scandinavian cinema as Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value claimed Norway's first-ever Oscar for Best International Feature Film.
The Norwegian family drama, which had already swept the 2025 European Film Awards—taking six prizes, among them Best European Film—arrived in Hollywood as one of the evening's most decorated contenders, having accumulated nine nominations in total. It prevailed over strong competition from Brazil's The Secret Agent and France's It Was Just an Accident, among others.
Trier, 52, is regarded as one of the foremost directors of his generation. His reputation was forged through what critics have come to call the Oslo trilogy, a loosely connected series of intimate, psychologically rich films culminating in The Worst Person in the World (2021), which earned him a nomination for Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards and introduced Renate Reinsve — who also appears in Sentimental Value — to international audiences.
Both Reinsve and veteran Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård received acting nominations for the new film, which Trier also directed from his own screenplay.
His relationship with Cannes has been equally distinguished. Sentimental Value won the Grand Prix at the 2025 festival, following Palme d'Or nominations for Louder Than Bombs (2015) and *The Worst Person in the World* (2021).
Sentimental Value is a co-production part-financed through the European Commission's Creative Europe MEDIA programme, which contributed more than €4 million toward the development and distribution of European films recognised at this year's ceremony. Six MEDIA-supported productions received a combined 15 nominations at the 98th Oscars—a result Brussels will regard as a considerable vindication of its cultural investment.
The film also featured among the Best Picture nominees, alongside *Sinners*, *Bugonia* and *Hamnet*, making Trier one of a select group of filmmakers to contend simultaneously in both the international and top categories.
