Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value wins top prizes at European Film Awards

Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value dominated the European Film Awards in Berlin, taking the ceremony’s top prizes including best film, best director, best screenwriter, best actor for Stellan Skarsgård, best actress for Renate Reinsve and best composer. The Norwegian director’s meta-drama, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes last year, follows an ageing film-maker (Skarsgård) trying to recruit his estranged daughter (Reinsve) for his final work.

The triumph is likely to make the film a strong contender for an Oscar at the Academy Awards in March. The European Film Academy often concentrates awards on a single title: after winner-takes-all nights for Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall in 2023 and Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez in 2024, Sentimental Value dominated again.

Oliver Laxe’s Sirāt also had a strong night with five prizes, including a sound design award for its brooding techno score, while Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident went home empty-handed and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling took best costume. Panahi opened the ceremony with a statement on recent political unrest in his homeland: "If we are disappointed with politicians, we must at least refuse to remain silent," he said.

"Because silence in a time of crime is not neutrality.

Key Topics

Culture, Sentimental Value, European Film Awards, Joachim Trier, Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve