With the 2026 Oscar nominations having been announced there have been a number of surprises.
From Paul Mescal missing out entirely for Best Supporting Actor to Sinners setting the all-time Oscar nominations record with 16 to Timothee Chalamet making Oscars history, it has been a wildly eventful day of nominations.
One film however that did far better than many expected was Sentimental Value, the latest picture from Danish director Joachim Trier.
Having made his name on the global stage for The Worst Person in the World Trier’s Sentimental Value has been his most successful film so far with nine Oscar nominations.
Advert
Amongst these is a first-time nomination for Stellan Skarsgard and many fans watching the film to see what all the fuss is about might be surprised to find out that Skarsgard is speaking a totally different language to the rest of the cast.
The reason you might be surprised if you’ve already seen it is that Sentimental Value is predominantly in Norwegian, though Skarsgard speaks in Swedish during the film.
This may seem obvious but for English-speaking audiences it’s quite hard to realise and isn’t directly addressed in the film as such.
One fan noticed this, posting it on X, saying: “I just assumed Stellan Skarsgard was speaking Norwegian in Sentimental Value like everyone else, but looking it up it seems like he was just speaking Swedish the whole time. Fascinating. Wonder how that plays for Scandinavian viewers.”
One viewer replied saying: "It played well for me, most scandi people understand Swedish easily so it wasn’t a big deal."
Another however replied saying: "Wait that's so interesting I didn't realise either."
Swedish and Norwegian have heavy crossovers, meaning that many in Norway will still understand much of what he is saying, with the combination of the two languages often being called Svorsk.
Skarsgard stars as an ageing Swedish director seeking to make a comeback as his daughters deal with his ego and actions. Alongside him in the film are Elle Fanning and Renate Reinsve, who herself was nominated for Best Actress.
Whilst Skarsgard speaking in a different language to many of the other actors in the film is impressive enough, the actor was also dealing with language difficulties to a stroke he suffered three years before the film came out.
Speaking about this in an interview with NPR, he said: “I can't remember my lines anymore. That, and I have some language problems.
“But that was helped by having an earpiece and a prompter in my ear. And it's not as convenient as you think.
"That, oh, he says all the lines, so you just have to repeat them. It doesn't work like that.
“He or she has to say the lines very fast, very neutral and at the same time as your co-actor is saying his lines.
“It's elaborate because to find the rhythm, to work out the rhythm of the scene.”
When asked in the same interview about possibly being nominated for an Oscar, which has now become a reality, he joked that he had lived till 74 without one and so would probably ‘go on with my life as I've always done’.
He added though: “But it would be an enormous honour, of course, and I would be much more happy than I will admit.”
Michael Slavin