‘Sentimental Value’ Trailer: Renate Reinsve, Elle Fanning & Stellan Skarsgård Star in Joachim Trier’s Acclaimed Family Drama
Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in 'Sentimental Value' Kasper Tuxen / MUBI
Cannes Grand Prix winner ‘Sentimental Value’ teases a layered portrait of family, ambition, and the ghosts we inherit.
NEON has unveiled the first trailer for Sentimental Value, the new film from Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier (The Worst Person in the World), marking another emotionally resonant collaboration with Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve. The family drama, which received a rapturous 19-minute standing ovation and won the prestigious Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, will debut in limited release on November 7.
Set in Norway but carrying universal emotional weight, Sentimental Value follows sisters Nora (Reinsve) and Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) as they reconnect with their estranged father Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård), a once-revered film director facing creative and existential burnout. When Gustav offers Nora the lead role in what he hopes will be his final cinematic statement, she declines — only to find the part has been recast with a bright-eyed American ingenue, played by Elle Fanning.
This casting swap sends tremors through the already fraught family dynamic. Trier crafts a subtle meditation on the creative ego, familial longing, and the collision between artistic legacy and modern ambition. At the heart of it all is the tension between Nora and her father — artists bonded by blood and undone by pride — as well as the disruption introduced by Fanning’s character, a starlet dropped into an emotional landscape she doesn’t fully understand.
The trailer hints at Trier’s signature visual poise and emotional precision — elliptical editing, melancholic close-ups, and bursts of wry humor that destabilize the more devastating truths. This is a film steeped in memory and performance, interrogating the cost of personal expression when filtered through generational wounds.
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In his Cannes review, Deadline’s Pete Hammond noted, “Sentimental Value is a film that sneaks up on you, more meditative than maybe expected but also one that will not leave your mind so easily. The conclusion also turns out to be one of more satisfying endings I have seen in some time, perfectly pitched and worth the wait for its human truth, and value that stops just short of sentimental.”
Trier co-wrote the script with longtime collaborator Eskil Vogt (Thelma, Oslo, August 31st), continuing their exploration of identity, love, and the fragility of self-image in contemporary life. The film is produced by Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berensten Ottmar.
For NEON, Sentimental Value continues a strong fall slate. The distributor’s next title, Together, a body horror romance starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco, releases July 30. Upcoming films include Splitsville (August 22), Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (September 12), Shelby Oaks (October 3), Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident (October 15), and Osgood Perkins’ Keeper (TBA).
Watch the trailer below.
