The Best Supporting Actress race is uncharacteristically crowded this year and, strangely, no less than four films have at least two female supporting turns that are in the awards discussion: Gwyneth Paltrow and Odessa A’zion for Marty Supreme, Hailee Steinfeld and Wunmi Mosaku for Sinners, Teyana Taylor and Regina Hall for One Battle After Another and the two most talked about (and deserving), Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for Sentimental Value. The latter, a relative newcomer.
Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Norwegian helmer Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value is an astonishing achievement that is even more rewarding after repeated viewings. The work examines difficult familial relationships and how art converges with, and borrows from, life in order to potentially enlighten and heal.
The heart of the film is the relationship between two sisters, Nora (Renate Reinsve) and Agnes (Lilleaas). Nora is a successful stage actress, messed up by her childhood. Agnes is the more together sib who chose the security of a family, but is still haunted by having once played the young lead in one of her father’s beloved films. My review of the film can be found HERE.
Lillleaas’s Agnes spends a great deal of the film supporting everyone in her life from her needy sister to her egotistical father to her husband and nine-year-old. But there’s a hint of sorrow and longing that Lilleaas conveys in the most slight, but effective manner.
In two of the most extraordinary scenes near the end of the film, Agnes finally stands up to her father and confronts her sister—but not in the way one would expect. When Nora, who sees herself as fucked-up, wonders to her Agnes, “Why didn’t our childhood ruin you?,” Agnes replies, almost throwing the line away, “It hasn’t always been easy for me.” But there’s a brief moment where she looks away, subtly revealing her own hidden pain.
It’s a revelatory performance. One definitely deserving of awards attention.
The actress was recently named one of Variety’s 10 Actors to Watch.
In 2023, Lilleaas starred opposite Christopher Nissen in Netflix’s romantic drama, A Beautiful Life, playing a music producer who is given the daunting task of guiding a fisherman towards pop stardom.
From 2015 to 2018 she played Sara in the award-winning series Young and Promising.She also appeared in the Norwegian miniseries Rekyl and Sjit Happens.
Lilleaas made her feature film debut in Women in Oversized Men’s Shirts in 2015, and earned an Amanda Award nomination for Best Actress.
Her parents are theatre performers and she studied theater at Nord University.
Sentimental Value is Norway’s International Feature Oscar submission and is currently in theaters, released by NEON.
The Contending had the pleasure of a chat with Lilleaas.
