It's Been A Really Bad Week For Sentimental Value

4 days ago 12

Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.

He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.

For months, Sentimental Value has been viewed as a major contender heading for strong recognition at the 2026 Oscars. Joachim Trier's movie starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas has been held in high regard for awards season ever since it premiered at Cannes in April 2025. Once it started playing at more festivals and finally hit theaters, more praise came its way.

It's kept Sentimental Value at the center of 2026 Oscar conversations and nominations from various awards shows and critics groups. With it favored to win Best International Feature Film as Sweden's selection, the potential for Trier's direction and writing, as well as all four performances, to get nominated has made it one of the year's biggest Oscar contenders. It looked to be in a great position until these last few days.

Sentimental Value Had Critical Misses At The Actor Awards & DGA

Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and Rachel (Elle Fanning) taking a selfie in Sentimental Value

We're now entering a pivotal moment in awards season where the biggest critics-based awards shows, televised events, and guild awards start handing out nominations and wins. For Sentimental Value to hold a chance to win more than just Best International Feature Film, how it performs with voters in these different groups will be imperative.

That's why it was so noticeable that Sentimental Value was completely ignored by the Actor Awards (formerly known as SAG Awards). The SAG-AFTRA voters didn't recognize Reinsve, Skarsgård, Fanning, or Lilleaas individually for their performances. It didn't get an ensemble nomination, either.

To make matters even worse, Trier was then snubbed by the DGA Awards. The Director's Guild of America gave its five nominations for Best Director to Paul Thomas Anderson (One Battle After Another), Ryan Coogler (Sinners), Josh Safdie (Marty Supreme), Chloé Zhao (Hamnet), and Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein).

SAG and DGA both have strong histories of aligning with the Oscars in the acting and directing categories, especially when it comes to matching winners. Winning at either, or even just securing a nomination, is often a key piece of data to support a Best Picture nomination, too.

You could look at the misses from both guilds as a death sentence for Sentimental Value's Oscars chances. But that's probably not a certainty. It's more often that each category at SAG and DGA have one different nominee when it comes to the Oscars. This typically comes as Academy voters bring more favor toward international films, like Sentimental Value.

Notably, SAG didn't nominate a single foreign language film. That gives more room for Reinsve, Skarsgård, and one of Fanning or Lilleaas (if not both) to still secure Oscar nominations. The DGA miss could be more difficult to overcome, as Trier will need to beat out either Safdie or del Toro to be a Best Director 2026 Oscar nominee at a time when both their films are gaining steam.

For instance, Marty Supreme and Frankenstein both walked home as winners at the Critics' Choice Awards thanks to Timothée Chalamet and Jacob Elordi. They both got three nominations at SAG, including Best Ensemble, and each director was recognized at DGA.

All that suggests Sentimental Value's position could be weakening. It had seven nominations at the CCAs, but it didn't win a single award. Wicked: For Good and F1: The Movie had identical performances, and neither of them is viewed as an upper-echelon Oscar contender currently.

If Sentimental Value's momentum is truly fading, it's happening at a critically bad time. Oscar voting runs from January 12-16. Rather than the movie becoming a prominent fixture of awards season, other competitors are rising to the top at its expense.

With it having the second-most (8) nominations at the Golden Globes this Sunday, Sentimental Value could really benefit from a strong showing there. Wins for Skarsgård, Trier, or even the film in Best Drama would go a long way in reviving its standing in the 2026 Oscars races and remind voters to put it on their ballots starting next week.