#7: The Secret Agent
Ranking of the 10 Best Picture Nominees for 2026 Oscars

I’m Trevor with the Sasquatch Movie Minute and we are running down my ranking of the 10 nominees for Oscars BEST PICTURE 2025.

#7 is SENTIMENTAL VALUE, directed by Joachim Trier, starring Stellan Skarsgaard

Trier movies are deeply emotional, but slow, and I am beginning to think I just don’t connect with this type of filmmaking, as he calls it, ‘melancholy meditations’. I admire the film more than I love it. Its about an aging filmmaker trying to make a deeply personal film about his family, using the film to connect with his estranged daughters. I got a little confused with all the family connections. It seemed like the script was about the grandmother, but some thought it was actually about the daughter, but it included details about the mother, so was the grandson playing the role of the filmmaker as his own grandson? It wasn’t a good sign that these were the questions running through my head during the big scenes.

Best Scene. When the two daughters read their father’s script together. What a revealing sequence that highlights the healing relationship between these sisters. We have already seen the script scene acted out by another character earlier in the film, so we are already familiar with it, but seeing it hit these women as revelation recontextualizes the words and makes them powerful in a new way.

Performance. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas plays the younger sister in the family. I was so moved by this performance, it feels like this sister-type character, who chose family over art, is usually shunted off from the main narrative, but she became more central in the second half of the film. Her work in the library and in scenes defending her family was powerful. A well-deserved acting nomination!

For a quiet and deeply felt film, this is for you.