As Oscar for Best International Feature Film goes to ‘Sentimental Value’, presenter Javier Bardem declares ‘No to War’ and ‘Free Palestine’

BEFORE actor Javier Bardem presented theOscarfor Best International Feature Film to Joachim Trier for Norwegian drama ‘Sentimental Value’,he declared: “No to War” and “Free Palestine”.Bardem, who was accompanied by actor Priyanka Chopra Jonas, wore a pin that said “No a la guerra” (“No to war”) and another that supported Palestine.

After receiving the golden statuette and thanking his team and family, Trier followed up the Spanish actor’s statement.

“I want to end by paraphrasing the wonderful American writer James Baldwin, who makes us remember that all adults are responsible for all children, and let’s not vote for politicians who don’t take this seriously into account.”
‘Sentimental Value’, directed by Trier and written by him and Eskil Vogt, made history by becoming the first Norwegian film to win the Academy award for Best International Feature Film.

Set in Oslo, the film, which talks about parental abandonment and childhood trauma, is backed by compelling performances.

The movie is a gripping exploration of the estranged relationship between an aging filmmaker past his prime and his daughters.

The film, which features Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Elle Fanning and Anders Danielsen Lie, has secured nine Oscar nominations.

While accepting the award Trier said: “The film is about a very dysfunctional family, and it’s the opposite of what I felt with this beautiful group behind me.

I think I’ve made films to feel at home with people and I’ve really felt at home with the crew.

There’s 1,072 people in these credits and I love them all and I share this with them.

The cast behind me, I’ve never been so proud.

Thanks for wanting to work with me.”
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Talking about his fellow nominees, Trier added, “Because I’m in this category, I feel I represent global filmmakers, and in a moment like this, I just wanna recognize the wonderful films we were nominated together with.

Important, beautiful films that reflect our present crisis and the crisis of the past.”
In the closely contested race for the Best International Feature Film award at the 98th Academy Awards, the other nominees were Brazil’s ‘The Secret Agent’, Tunisia’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, Spain’s Sirāt and France’s It Was Just an Accident.

There has been an incredible buzz around ‘Sentimental Value’, which is directed and co-written by Joachim Trier, even since it premiered in the main competition of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and won the Grand Prix.

It also won the Best Film Not in the English Language category at the BAFTA Film Awards.

Though all the nominees in the Best International Film section are among the year’s highly acclaimed movies, in the run up to the 98th Academy Awards ceremony held at Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, the competition had narrowed down between Brazil’s ‘The Secret Agent’ and Norway’s ‘Sentimental Value’.

Interestingly, both these movies, which are distributed by Neon, were also nominated for Best Picture.

Neeraj Ghaywan-directed Homebound was shortlisted in this section but could not secure a nomination.

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