Joachim Trier's 'Sentimental Value' sends Cannes swooning

CANNES, France (AP) — It took nearly until the end of the festival, but the Cannes Film Festival has its first outright sensation.

Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” premiered Wednesday night to the kind of rapturous response that Cannes is fabled for. The film, starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, marked Trier's follow-up to his lauded 2021 film “The Worst Person in the World.”

There’s stagecraft that goes into Cannes’ famous standing ovations, which makes the timed applause reports an often inaccurate reflection of how movies are received at the festival. But the thunderous ovation for “Sentimental Value,” at 15 minutes, was the most rousing of any film in Cannes by a large margin.

“What’s that Buñuel quote? ‘I make films for my friends?’” Trier said, addressing the crowd. “I feel you’re all my friends tonight.”

Trier’s remark, while Fanning wiped away tears, was a poignant reference to “Sentimental Value.”

Reinsve, who starred in “The Worst Person in the World,” plays the actor daughter of a well-regarded filmmaker, Gustav (Skarsgård), who has put moviemaking before parenting most of their lives. When he writes a script for her, she immediately refuses. Gustav instead casts a young Hollywood star (Fanning).

Much of the film is set around their old family home in Oslo, in which Gustav wants to make his film. As “Sentimental Value” proceeds, it gently unveils questions of family and home that have as much to do with artmaking as for fathers and daughters.

After Charli xcx concluded her Coachella set with a screen declaring, among others, a “Joachim Trier Summer,” Fanning sported a shirt with that phrase Thursday in Cannes. But Trier may have coined a new slogan for shirts, himself: “Tenderness is the new punk.”

Trier explained to reporters how he and co-writer Eskil Vogt came from a punk background and were initially hesitant to make “sobby movies.”

“But we realized through the films we’ve made that we’ve grown older and the world is a tough place, and maybe we need to be vulnerable and show characters that are vulnerable,” said the Norwegian director. “So we kind of came to the conclusion that tenderness is the new punk. For me, it is. It’s what I need right now — I need to believe that we can see the other, that there is a sense of reconciliation, that polarization and machismo isn’t the only way forward.”

The debut of “Sentimental Value” immediately made Trier’s film a contender, if not the clear favorite, for Cannes’ top award, the Palme d’Or. Should “Sentimental Value” win on Saturday, when Cannes draws to a close, it would extend the indie distributor Neon’s unprecedented streak of Palme d’Or wins. Neon has backed the last five Palme d’Or winners in Cannes, including last year’s Oscar-winning “Anora.” This year, it also acquired another film that could be in the mix, Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.”

Should “Sentimental Value” win over the jury headed by Juliette Binoche, it would be the first Norwegian film to win the Palme d’Or.

For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival

Elle Fanning poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Sentimental Value' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Director Joachim Trier poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Sentimental Value' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Anders Danielsen Lie, third from left, Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgard, director Joachim Trier and Renate Reinsve pose for photographers upon departure from the premiere of the film 'Sentimental Value' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Lewis Joly/Invision/AP)

Renate Reinsve poses for photographers upon departure from the premiere of the film 'Sentimental Value' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Wednesday, May 21, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Director Joachim Trier, left, and Renate Reinsve pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'Sentimental Value' at the 78th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian drones blasted apartment buildings and the power grid in the southern Ukraine city of Odesa in an overnight attack that injured six people, including a toddler and two other children, officials said Wednesday.

Four apartment buildings were damaged in the bombardment, according to regional military administration head Oleh Kiper. Power company DTEK said two of its energy facilities suffered significant damage. The company said that 10 substations that distribute electricity in the Odesa region were damaged in December alone.

Russia has this year escalated its long-range attacks on urban areas of Ukraine. In recent months, as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor approaches its four-year milestone in February, it has also intensified its targeting of energy infrastructure, seeking to deny Ukrainians heat and running water in the bitter winter months.

From January to November this year, more than 2,300 Ukrainian civilians were killed and more than 11,000 were injured, the United Nations said earlier this month. That was 26% higher than in the same period in 2024 and 70% higher than in 2023, it said.

Russia’s sustained drone and missile attacks have taken place against backdrop of renewed diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting.

U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday and announced that a settlement is “closer than ever before." The Ukrainian leader is due to hold talks next week with the heads of European governments supporting his efforts to secure acceptable terms.

The ongoing attacks, meantime, are inflaming tensions.

The overnight Odesa strikes “are further evidence of the enemy’s terror tactics, which deliberately target civilian infrastructure,” Kiper, the regional head, said.

Moscow has alleged that Ukraine attempted to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in northwestern Russia with 91 long-range drones late Sunday and early Monday. Ukrainian officials deny the claim and say it’s a ruse to derail progress in the peace negotiations.

Maj. Gen. Alexander Romanenkov of the Russian air force claimed Wednesday that the drones took off from Ukraine’s Sumy and Chernihiv regions.

At a briefing where no questions were allowed, he presented a map showing the drone flight routes before they were downed by Russian air defenses over the Bryansk, Tver, Smolensk and Novgorod regions.

It was not possible to independently verify the reports.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, on Wednesday called the Russian allegations “a deliberate distraction” from the peace talks.

“No one should accept unfounded claims from the aggressor who has indiscriminately targeted Ukraine’s infrastructure and civilians since the start of the war,” Kallas posted on X.

Zelenskyy said Wednesday that Romania and Croatia are the latest countries to join a fund that buys weapons for Ukraine from the United States. The financial arrangement, known as the Prioritized Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, pools contributions from NATO members, except the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment.

Since it was established in August, 24 countries are now contributing to the fund, according to Zelenskyy. The fund has so far received $4.3 billion, with almost $1.5 billion coming in December alone, he said on social media.

Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that Russia fired 127 drones at the country during the night, with 101 of them intercepted by air defenses.

Meanwhile, the Russian Defense Ministry said that 86 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight over Russian regions, the Black Sea and the illegally annexed Crimea peninsula.

The Ukrainian attack started a fire at an oil refinery in Russia's southern Krasnodar region, but it was quickly put out, local authorities said.

This story has corrected the day of the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian president’s residence to late Sunday and early Monday.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian attack in Odesa, Ukraine, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

In this image made from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025, a Russian Army soldier fires from D-30 howitzer towards Ukrainian positions in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)