Sentimental Value swept the awards at this year’s European Film Awards, winning Best Film, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Composer, Best Screenplay, and Best Director. Never before has a Norwegian film received so many awards at this ceremony.
The European Film Awards are considered Europe’s own equivalent of the Oscars and are organized by the European Film Academy, which has more than 5,400 European film professionals as members.
"What a night in Berlin – for Sentimental Value and for Norwegian cinema. Six awards! That Joachim Trier and the team behind the film have created a work with broad international impact was already clear in Cannes, where it received the Grand Prix. This has since been confirmed by strong box office results in Norway, Sweden, France and the United States, as well as eight Golden Globe nominations, the award to Stellan Skarsgård, the film’s Oscar shortlisting – and now this.
The European Film Awards are an important celebration of independent European cinema. Tonight’s recognition of Sentimental Value, voted for by fellow filmmakers, shows that films rooted in strong artistic vision and a distinct European perspective can reach audiences far beyond national borders and resonate across the international film industry", says Kjersti Mo, CEO of the Norwegian Film Institute.
In his acceptance speeches, Joachim Trier used his time on stage to thank the 1,072 people credited on Sentimental Value and also highlighted how film – in a time of increasing conflict – can help us see that the person on the other side is not our enemy.
Sentimental Value was nominated in no fewer than eight categories:
Sentimental Value is also one of the five films nominated for the LUX Audience Award 2026. The winner will be announced at a ceremony in the European Parliament in Brussels in mid-April.
The European Film Academy is an industry organization with 5,400 members, founded by European filmmakers in Berlin in 1988 to promote and recognize quality and creativity in European film production.
The 38th European Film Awards ceremony took place on Saturday, 17 January 2026, in Berlin. Liv Ullmann was honored with the European Lifetime Achievement Award for her contributions to cinema as an actress, screenwriter, and director. The award was presented by the President of the European Film Academy, Juliette Binoche. Ullmann attended the ceremony together with her grandchild, director and screenwriter Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, who won the critics’ debut award at last year’s European Film Awards.
Manager International Relations, Feature Films
